' 







£%*£*: 



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SWBDBNBORG RITE 



AND THE 



GREAT MASONIC LEADERS 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 






BY SAMUEIj, KESWICK. 
1881 

NEW YORK: 

MASONIC PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

432 BROOME STREET, 
1870. 



fr 






y. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1ST0, 

By Samuel Beswick, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 

District of New Jersey. 



PKEFACE 



The time and labor which have been expended 
in hunting up the mass of information which has 
been obtained in relation to Swedenborg and Free- 
masonry, and condensed into this volume, have not 
been slight. This addition to Masonic literature is 
the first attempt to satisfy a want which has long 
been felt in relation to the Masonic career of that 
wonderful man — Emanuel Swedenborg. It is the 
only book which treats of the Swedenborg Rite, the 
Masonic career of Swedenborg and his followers, 
and the relation which the symbolic system of Swe- 
denborgianism has held with Freemasonry. Who- 
ever undertakes to write an elaborate treatise must 
travel over Germany, Holland, Denmark, and Swe- 
den, and make his journey a specialty. 

Everything said of Swedenborg and Freemasonry 
has been little more than a pouring from out of one 
vial into another. But I have aimed to write this 



4 PREFACE. 

history with perfect independence, freedom of opin- 
ion, originality of conception, and an entire avoid- 
ance of the beaten paths. To do this successfully, 
I determined to investigate new sources of informa- 
tion and inaugurate new attempts. By this plan 
I hoped to write something worth reading, and pre- 
sent this wonderful man, Swedenborg, in a new light, 
and from new stand-points — the yery spots where 
his footprints are visible. 

Patekson, N". J., Jan. 6, 1870. 



CONTENTS. 



PAET I. 



Preface 3 

I. Swedenborg's Initiation at Lund 9 

II. From Royal University to Royal College of Mines 19 

III. Travels— Visits to Lodges 39 

IV. How the Swedenborgian Rite began 61 

PART II. 
Swedenborgian Masons the Great Leaders of the 

Eighteenth Century 75 

V. Reigning Duke Charles of Hesse-Darmstadt, Grand 
Master of Germany, Generalissimo of the Tem- 
plars" m Denmark 77 

VI. King Gustavus III., of Sweden 93 

VII. Hereditary Prince Charles of Sweden, Grand Com- 
mander of Scottish Rite 101 

VIII. Cardinal Prince de Rohan, Grand Commander of , 

Scottish Rite in France 108 

IX. Count A. J. Von Hopken, Prime Minister of 

Sweden 112 

X. C. F. and Aug. Nordenskjold 120 

XL M. Matheus, Grand Master of France 122 

XII. Counsellor S. Sandel 125 



6 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

XIII. Benedict Chastauier 127 

XIV. Count Zinnenclorf 133 

XV. Chevalier Savalette de la Lange 147 

XVI. Abbe Pernetti 148 

XVII. Count Cagliostro 153 

XVIII. Swedenborgian Rite in America 166 

XIX. Charles XII. of Sweden 185 

XX. Illuminism 195 

XXI. Note Conclusory 203 



PART I. 

SWEDENBORG'S INITIATION 
AT LUND. 

1706. 



SWEDENBORG'S INITIATION, 



i. 

SCOTTISH RITE. 

Emanuel Swedenborg was born at Stockholm, in 
January, 1688. In 1692 the family removed to 
Upsal, near the Royal University, in which his 
father was a Professor and Dean. When he was 
four years old, his father was appointed Bishop of 
Skara : but young Swedenborg was sent at the 
proper age to pursue his studies at the Royal Uni- 
versity of Upsal. "When about eighteen years of 
age, in the year 1706, and whilst on a visit to his 
home in Brunsbo, West Gothland, he went to see 
the University at Lund. Here he was initiated for 
the first time into the mysteries of Freemasonry, 
taking the Chapter degrees of the Scottish Rite, 
which formed a part of the series. On his return, 
he joined or affiliated with the Stockholm Chapter. 
Lund, where he took his degrees, is the capital of 
Sconen, the extreme southern province of Sweden. 

1* 



10 swedenborg' s initiation. 

It is about seventeen miles east of Copenhagen, and 
is geographically situated in E. long. 13° 26', and N. 
lat. 55°3 3'. In most Geographical Dictionaries of 
the last century, it is spelled Ltjnden, especially the 
French, which -was the fashionable language of the 
University of Lend when Swedenborg was initiated 
there. 

If it be objected, that Swedenborg was then only 
eighteen years of age in 1706, and that he must 
have falsified his age in order to gain admission ; 
we reply, that it was customary to initiate in the 
continental Chapters and Lodges at an age so low as 
seventeen. Masonic discipline was so lax, that all 
the continental Universities had their Chapters and 
Lodges, which acknowledged no governing head ; 
and therefore it is no wonder that they became dis- 
orderly, from the intemperate conduct of their youth- 
ful members. For mere boys were admitted, and 
the only qualification for membership was, that the 
candidate should have his name on the roll of the 
University. 

An anecdote is told of a method adopted by the 
Jesuits to extinguish one of these Lodges, calling 
itself Chevaliers cle la pure Verite. A sarcastic 
ballad was composed on the young Chevaliers, and 
copies were secretly distributed to all the young men 



SCOTTISH EITE. 11 

who did not belong to the Lodge. Scarcely could 
one of the juvenile Knights make his appearance 
without hearing some ridiculous line of his ballad 
hummed in his ears, and in a short time the Lodge 
was abandoned. There was a lack of unity amongst 
the Lodges ; and even Grand Lodges could not act 
in concert. It was this lack of discipline and inde- 
pendence of the University Chapters and Lodges, 
which caused Yon Eckleff, Master of the Stockholm 
Chapter and Counsellor of Chancery, to give the 
Swedish System to Zinnendorf without the privity 
of the Grand Lodge. Hence the reason why, for 
half a century after Swedenborg's initiation, the de- 
basement of the Order became inevitable, and hun- 
dreds of degrees were fabricated and promulgated 
in the Lodges, to the great detriment of the Order, 
and the scandal of Symbolic Masonry. Scores of 
systems were in operation at the same time, each 
patronized and defended by able advocates in every 
station of life. 

The immaturity of Swedenborg's age when ini- 
tiated may be explained by the fact, that in all 
Lodges under the jurisdiction of the Eoyal Scottish 
Grand Lodge, initiates were received at the immature 
age of eighteen, which he had then attained. George 
Washington, the first President of the United States, 



12 swedenborg' s initiation. 

was initiated in Fredericksburg Lodge, Virginia, 
Nov. 4th, 1752, passed March 3d, 1753, and raised 
Aug. 4th, 1753. His initiation took place when he 
was only twenty years of age ; which was permitted, 
because the Lodge was working under its original 
Scotch charter. 

The Swedenborgian Masons in Stockholm and 
Sweden generally have long had an impression that 
Swedenborg was first initiated in an English Lodge 
called Emanuel Lodge, No. 6, London. But this is 
undoubtedly a mistake. The writer heard this re- 
port over twenty years ago, when he and others 
were hunting for information in relation to Sweden- 
borg' s career as a Freemason, and the report proved 
to be without the least foundation. Swedenborg 
never was a member of any Lodge in England. The 
following document will explain how this report has 
got into circulation. It is a letter from Professor 
Tafel, who is now (1869) in Sweden, sent by the 
followers of Swedenborg in America, for the special 
purpose of hunting up old information and original 
documents relating to Swedenborg. 

"SWEDENBORG AND FREEMASONRY. 

" While in Lund last year, Mr. L. P. Regnell, Clerk 
of the County Court, a member of the New Church, and 



SCOTTISH RITE. 13 

Commander of the Lodge of Freemasons in Lund, kindly 
gave me a copy of the following document in Swedish, 
which I have translated into English : 

"In the archives of the Chapter in Christianstad, 
there is an old book of records, containing the minutes 
of a Convention or Lodge held in Wittshofle, June 5th, 
1787. King Gustavus III., and his brother, the Duke 
Charles of Sodermanland (Charles XIII.), were present, 
and the latter presided at the Lodge. Many brethren 
from the southern part of Sweden, Stockholm, from 
Pomerania, Greifswalde, and Stralsund, were present; 
the names of the officers that assisted at the meeting 
are- also given. Among other things, the minutes state 
that the first brother of the watch, Lieutenant-Colonel 
and Knight Baltzar Wedemar, upon this occasion de- 
livered a lecture on Masonry, which was listened to by 
all with great attention and interest. In this lecture he 
mentioned the writings of Assessor Emanuel Sweden- 
borg, and spoke of his career as a Freemason ; that he 
visited Charles XII. in Altenstedt, in order to have the 
high order of Masonry introduced into Sweden ; that 
Mr. Wedemar himself had visited the Lodge in London, 
which Swedenborg joined in the beginning of the year 
1706, (?) and that the signature of his name is in the 
register of the Lodge, etc. The minutes state further, 
that the king and the duke were both aware of the fact 
that Swedenborg had been a member of the order ; and 
the same was also known to the other brethren who were 
present. The Lodge which Swedenborg joined, and which 
bears his name, is No. 6, in London. In a German work, 



14 swedenbobg's initiation. 

entitled ' Latona,' which appeared in Leipzig, in the de- 
partment of news, there is an article relating all the 
particulars of Swedenborg's reception in the order. 

" That he joined an English Lodge, Emanuel, says Mr. 
R., is known to every Masonic brother in England. In 
order to verify this account, Mr. Regnell addressed a 
letter to the Great Secretary of the Great National 
Lodge in London, which I translated into English, and 
took with me to London, where I asked the Rev. Mr. 
Goyder, an English Freemason, to deliver it to the Great 
Secretary. After a few weeks, Mr. Goyder received a 
letter from the Secretary, in which he thanks him for 
the letter, but says that the accounts of the first part of 
the last century were destroyed, and that it was impos- 
sible for him to comply with Mr. RegnelPs request. 
There is one inaccuracy in the account from Christian- 
stad, namely : it is stated there that Swedenborg was 
received in the order in England in 1706 ; but from his 
letters it is well established that his first visit to London 
was made in 1710. 

"R. L. Tafel. 

" Stockholm, 18G9." 



The information given in this document has been 
in our possession about twenty years, and we are 
certain that the Secretary's Minutes in the old 
Record have not been correctly understood, nor 
have they been correctly copied. Our reasons for 
relying on our own interpretation and copying of 



swedenborg's initiation. 15 

the Minutes, which differ slightly from this docu- 
ment, are the following. 

I. Sweclenborg did not go to London until 1710 ; 
but he could readily go to Lunden, because near his 
paternal home. So that if the date of this docu- 
ment, 1706, be correct, there is presumptive evidence 
that London in England is wrong, and Lunden on the 
opposite shore to, and about seventeen miles distant 
from, Copenhagen, is right. 

II. Professor Tafel suggests that Swedenborg 
went to London in 1710, and might then have 
joined a Lodge. But we have proof that there were 
only four Lodges in London so far back as 1717, 
when the Grand Lodge was formed, and the Kevi- 
val in Masonry took place. The four Lodges then 
in London, 1710-1717, were named from the signs 
of the Taverns where they held their meetings, and 
were as follows : 

" Goose and Gridiron," St. Paul's Churchyard. 

" Crown," Parker's Lane, near Drury Lane. 

"Apple Tree Tavern," Charles Street, Covent 
Garden. 

" Eummer and Grapes," Channel Kow, Westmin- 
ster. 

None of these Lodges has ever gone by the name 
of EmanneVs Lodge. Furthermore, Lodge No. 6, in 



16 SCOTTISH RITE. 

the London list, is not called Emanuel Lodge, and 
never has been. 

III. The Lecturer, Mr. Wedemar, says he saw 
Swedenborg's name in Lodge No. 6, and the date 
was 1706. This he could readily have done in Lun- 
den, but not in London ; for all the old documents 
of the first part of the last century were destroyed 
by the Lodges for the safety of their secrets. If 
Wedemar did enter a Lodge No. 6, and see Sweden- 
borg's name, then it must have been in Lunden, in 
the Swedish province of Sconen ; for it could not 
have been in London, England, for there has never 
been a Lodge in London with that name and num- 
ber. And all the records were destroyed at the 
beginning of the last century ; so that if his signa- 
ture ever did exist in any English Register, it must 
have been destroyed before Wedemar could see it. 

IV. The true rendering of the Secretary's Minutes 
in the Lodge Book is as follows : 

" That Mr. Wedemar himself had visited the 
Lodge in Lunden, which Swedenborg joined in the 
beginning of the year 1706, and that the signature 
of his name is in the Register of the Lodge." 

V. We are satisfied that Lunden has been mis- 
taken for London, on account of the similarity of 
sound. In most Geographical Dictionaries of the 



swedenboeg's initiation. 17 

last century Lund is printed Lunden, especially in 
French works.* This was the fashionable language 
in Lund, and the Court language in Stockholm and 
Germany. 

The person who first obtained this information 
was the Frenchman, Abbe Pernetti, Royal Librarian 
to the King of Prussia, at Berlin ; and he has un- 
doubtedly converted Lund into Lunden, as was the 
French practice in his day. About the year 1781- 
1790, he hunted up information of all kinds in rela- 
tion to Swedenborg, and made a personal visit to 
Sweden for that purpose, and afterward embodied 
what he found in a brief biography, which he pub- 
lished as a Preface to his French translation of 
Swedenborg' s " Heaven and Hell." The document 
is a Swedish translation of French memoranda in 
relation to the incidents of the Convention at Witts- 
hofle, and the Swedish translator has mistaken Lun- 
den for London. 

In short, Swedenborg was initiated into the Sub- 
lime degrees in his own country in Lund, the capital 

* See JSfouxeau Dictionnaive Geographique, par Vosgien, Paris, 
1819. The city of Lund is thus given : " Lunden, ville consi- 
derable, cedee a la Suede en 1659 ; capitale de la Scanie, avec uri 
eygche lutherien, et une universite fondee en 1068 ; a 7 lieues E. 
de Copenhague." 



18 SCOTTISH RITE. 

city of the province lying next to that in which his 
home was located. His initiation was in the year 
1706, and the Order is that known as the Scottish 
Bite. For a number of years he was known as a 
constant visitor in the Chapters at Lund, Stockholm, 
Greifswalde, Stralsund, and Christianstad ; and his 
visits have been traced for a period of about thirty 
years, or from 1706-1740. 



FKOM ROYAL UNIVERSITY 



TO 



ROYAL COLLEGE OF MINES 



1709-1716. 



II. 



Swedenboeg's education at Upsala was finished 
in 1709, when he was twenty-one years of age. He 
left the University in May, 1709, and met his father 
at Stockholm by appointment, who came from Ska- 
ra to obtain permission from Charles XII. for young 
Emanuel to go abroad for a few years. The king- 
was in Kussia, which he had invaded ; but the old 
Bishop had powerful influence at the Swedish Court, 
and he soon found out where to send the following 
Memorial, that it might go direct to the king with- 
out the usual delay : — 

" Stockholm, May 22, 1709. 
" As I am minded to allow my son, Emanuel Svedberg 
[the family had not then been ennobled, and the name 
changed to Swedenborg], to travel in foreign lands for 
the sake of his studies, which he has hitherto diligently 
pursued at Upsala : so I make ray most humble prayer 
to your Royal Majesty for permission. 

"Jesper Svedberg." 

This letter in all probability never reached the 
king, for on July 8, 1709, Charles XII. and Peter 



22 EXTRAORDINARY ASSESSOR 

the Great fought a battle before Pultowa, which 
ended in the complete defeat of the Swedish king, 
who fled to Turkey, and placed himself under the 
protection of Sultan Achmet III. This monarch 
generously assigned him a pension, and the town 
Bender, on the Dniester, as a residence, where the 
"Lion of the North" spent a weary exile of five 
years. Doubtless this was the reason why Sweden- 
borg did not begin his journey to the continent until 
the year 1710. The old Bishop's first application was 
either set aside until Charles had fewer cares and 
more leisure, or else it never reached him. In the 
mean time young Swedenborg was introduced to the 
Court of Stockholm by his father, who was well 
known to the king's family. Here young Emanuel 
renewed his acquaintance with the Masonic frater- 
nity, which had begun at Lund. And having plenty 
of leisure time, now the Bishop had returned to 
Skara, he visited all the Lodges, Chapters, and Com- 
manderies. He spent most of the year, from May, 
1709-1710, in Stockholm, and only occasionally 
made temporary visits to his paternal home at 
Skara. It was during this period of his career that 
he made his first acquaintance with the nobility of 
Sweden, who frequented the Royal Court in the 
capital : the war had made them constant attend- 



IN THE COLLEGE OF MINES. 23 

ants at the Chapters and Commanderies. Here all 
the secrets of the Koyal Court, and all the private 
news relating to the war could be talked over and 
discussed in confidence. And whilst the war raged 
with violence and uncertainty, the Chapters and 
Commanderies were filled with brethren from all 
parts, who came to the capital to learn something 
of the movements of their king, during his invasion 
of Russia, his defeat, and exile in Turkey. 

Upsal, where Swedenborg graduated, has been 
rendered somewhat famous by the Philosophical 
Degrees of St. Martin. In one of these degrees 
Upsal is spoken of as the first place which sent 
forth Freemasonry and the Templar Order over Eu- 
rope. It represents that eighty-one Masons came 
to Europe about 1150, under the care of Garimont, 
Patriarch of Jerusalem, and went to Sweden to the 
Archbishop of Upsal, where they enclosed all their 
Masonic information in a marble tomb, placed in a 
subterranean vault. This tomb was subsequently 
discovered, etc., etc. ; and according to St. Martin , 
these eighty-one Masons established Freemasonry 
in Europe, and nine of them established the Order 
of the Temple. 

In the year 1710, Swedenborg started on his first 
travels on the continent. He set out for Gottenburg, 



24 EXTRAORDINARY ASSESSOR 

and thence to London. In London and Oxford lie 
spent more than a year, and made the acquaintance 
of the eminent men of that day. He visited Flam- 
stead, at the Greenwich Observatory, and at Oxford 
he formed an intimate acquaintance with the cele- 
brated Edmund Halley, who, like himself, was trying 
to discover a method of finding the longitude by 
lunar observation. In 1711, he left England for 
Holland. At Utrecht, he attended the Congress of 
European ambassadors, which gave peace to Spain. 
At Paris he lived a year, making the acquaintance 
of its celebrities. Thence he went to Hamburg, and 
lastly ended his first journey in Pomerania, a Ger- 
man Province on the Baltic, then subject to Sweden. 
There he pursued his studies at a little seaside 
University town of Greifswalde. He was then 
twenty-three years of age, and anxious that his. 
father's influence should obtain him a government 
appointment. Being only fifteen miles from another 
seaside town, called Stralsund, a fortified place, and 
of more importance than Greifswalde, he alternated 
his spare time with Stralsund. He remained here 
from 1713-14 to the spring of 1715. Here again he 
renewed his visits to the Chapters and Commander- 
ies of these two seaside towns. And he was per- 
haps better known amongst the fraternity from his 



IN THE COLLEGE OF MINES. 25 

visits during this period of his history, than from 
his associations in Stockholm. 

His studies at Greifswalde were broken up by the 
pressure of war. Charles XII. had left his place of 
exile, Bender, on the Dniester in Turkey, and ap- 
peared in Stralsund, the only place in Pomerania 
left to the Swedes by their enemies. Well fortified, 
and almost surrounded by lake and sea, it was an 
excellent centre from which the warlike monarch 
could operate against Denmark, Saxony, and Eussia, 
in the hope of retrieving his former disasters. But 
they were too numerous and powerful for him ; for 
they shut him up in Stralsund, and formed a cordon 
around him, by sea and land. The little Univer- 
sity town of Greifswalde, where Swedenborg was 
studying, was only fifteen miles distant from the 
scene of the war, and, as the country all around was 
occupied by the besieging armies, he deemed it 
prudent, in the spring of 1715, to cross the Baltic 
and return home. It may be truly said, that King 

Charles had at that time a world in arms against him. ! 

I 
Eight months afterward, 20th Dec, 1715, the 

warrior-king escaped in a boat, thence on board a 
Swedish vessel. The war-rumors, general excite- 
ment, and momentary expectation of the escape of 
the king from Stralsund, where he was surrounded 



26 EXTRAORDINARY ASSESSOR 

by his enemies, are very well expressed in the follow- 
ing letter, written by Swedenborg to his brother-in- 
law, Eric Benzelius, on the day of his arrival in 
Stockholm, where he had gone to push forward his 
interests, and to be present in the capital when the 
king arrived. 

"Honored and Dear Brother: 

"According to my promise, I send these lines in the 
utmost haste to the post ; first and foremost thanking 
you for the great kindness shown to me in Upsala. I 
only came here to-day. I might easily have arrived 
yesterday, had it not been for the darkness, and un- 
certainty of finding quarters with some one in a blue 

dress We have heard both the best and the 

worst news, but it turns out to. be only a pack of false 
and unfounded rumors. Most persons know nothing 
certain about the king's person ; some shut him up in 
Stralsund, and give him no means of escaping ; others, 
vainly rejoice with the expectation of his returning here 
this evening. Vehicles are in readiness at the Court to 
meet him. It is generally supposed, however, that he 
has escaped, etc. 

"My brother Gustavus sends his compliments, and 
apologizes for not having written ; next, a hundred thou- 
sand salutations and thanks to sister Anna. I remain, 

"Respected brother, your sincere brother, 

"Eman. Svedberg. 

" Stockholm, Nov. 21st, 1715." 



IN THE COLLEGE OF MINES. 27 

His allusion to the uncertainty of " finding quar- 
ters with some one in a blue dress," has no reference 
to any special lady relative or acquaintance, as the 
reader might suppose at first reading ; it alludes to 
the dress belonging to the Order of Sublime and 
Ineffable Masonry, which he had joined. The 
country was literally besieged by the Danes on the 
west side, and the Prussians and Eussians on the 
south. The king had been an exile for five years in 
Turkey, and now he had escaped to his Swedish 
province of Pomerania, making his last desperate 
struggle for life with an overpowering and relentless 
foe. The Secret Orders were all alive and espous- 
ing his cause. All was excitement in the capital of 
Sweden. Vehicles were held in readiness to escort 
their warrior-king, whom they expected every mo- 
ment to appear suddenly in their midst, after his 
escape from a five years' exile. 

Swedenborg was then living with his father, 
Bishop of Skara ; and the exciting but imminent 
news had led him to push on to the capital, and to 
be present at the king's reception in Stockholm. 
He says he would have been there on the evening 
previous, but the darkness and lateness of the even- 
ing would make it uncertain whether he could find 
quarters with some of his Masonic brethren. So he 



28 EXTRAORDINARY ASSESSOR 

delayed his entry into Stockholm until morning, 
when it would be more convenient to hunt them up. 
He wrote his letter on the same day, and the in- 
ference from it is, that he had found quarters with 
his blue-dress friends, before writing the letter. It 
should be remembered that Swedenborg's home was 
at Skara : he had no home in Stockholm, nor any 
female or male relative residing there. 

" Finding quarters with some one in a blue dress," 
is his form of expression ; but any one of the party 
is his meaning. Had it been a military or popular 
civic organization, the name would have been given ; 
but the secret, studied avoidance of giving a name, 
and designating the party by the peculiarity of dress 
— blue dress — plainly proves it to belong to some 
one of the Secret Orders to which he then belonged 
— especially the Sublime and Ineffable Order. The 
letter is sent to Eric Benzelius, Librarian to the 
Eoyal Academy of Upsal, who afterward became 
Archbishop of Upsal. 

About this time, Swedenborg published a poem 
on the king's return from exile, which brought him 
prominently before the nation, and placed him in 
the forefront of the king's admirers. Whilst he was 
a student at Upsal, he boarded for a time with Pol- 
heim, the celebrated Swedish Eoyal Engineer, and 



IN THE COLLEGE OF MINES. 29 

Councillor of Commerce. Polheim and lie were 
both Chapter and Templar Masons. On Sweden- 
borg's return from his first continental tour, they 
jointly started a periodical entitled " Daadalus 
Hyperboreus," under Swedenborg' s management, 
which failed in 1718 from the lack of subscribers. 
In the fall of 1716, Polheim made an effort to obtain 
his associate a government appointment as an 
assistant to himself, and succeeded. He had been 
ordered to repair to Lund, so he invited Swedenborg 
to accompany him, that he might make a direct ap- 
plication to the king, Charles XII. They went, and 
Swedenborg was graciously received. The king 
saw his great engineering and mechanical abilities 
and tastes, and gave him the choice of three ap- 
pointments : that of Assessorship in the Royal 
College or Board of Mines was selected. The 
"Warrant of appointment ran as follows : 



"Lund, December 19th, 1716. 

f 

" Chaeles, &c, to the College of Mines, &c. 

"In our pleasure we have thought fit to appoint 
Emanuel Svedberg as Extraordinary Assessor in the 
College of Mines, in order that he may co-operate with 
Polheim, the Councillor of Commerce, in his affairs and 
inventions. It is our pleasure hereby to let you know 
the same, with our gracious order, that you allow him 



30 EXTRAORDINARY ASSESSOR 

to enjoy a seat and voice in the College whenever he is 
able to be present, and especially, when any business 
connected with Mechanics is under discussion. 

" With God's blessing, Carolits." 

Their intercourse afterward was of the most 
friendly and intimate nature. The king associated 
him with the Royal Engineer, Polheim, in all his un- 
dertakings, as stated in this royal order. The intima- 
cy between these three men of congenial tastes — all 
first-class mathematicians and mechanics — was ce- 
mented by the bonds of Freemasonry in the Chapter 
and Templar degrees. They had Lodges and En- 
campments during all the wars of the king, from 
1716-1718, when the king was shot on the parapets 
of an entrenchment, at the siege of Frederickshall, 
Dec. 11, 1718. 

In relation to this warrant, Swedenborg comments, 
in a letter to his relative, at Upsal, as follows : 

"Honored and Dear Brother: 

" I wrote to you from Lund, and should have done 
so more frequently, had I not been prevented by me- 
chanical and other occupations. When his Majesty had 
graciously examined my Dredalus and its plan, he ad- 
vanced me to the post of Extraordinary Assessor in 
the College of Mines, in order that, after some time, I 
should succeed Polheim, the Councillor of Commerce. . . . 



IN THE COLLEGE OF MINES. 31 

Bat as my enemies had played too many intrigues with 
the above-mentioned warrant [the person who had 
drawn it up was seeking to obtain an appointment and 
could not get the one he asked for] and couched it in 
ambiguous terms, it was sent back to his Majesty with 
some remarks, for I knew what I had to rely upon ; 
whereupon he immediately granted me a new one, and 
likewise a gracious letter to the College of Mines : the 
counterpart was to remain upon his Majesty's own 
table, written in duplicate in two ways, of which he 
selected the best/ so that those who had sought my 
injury were glad enough to escape with honor and repu- 
tation, for they had well-nigh burned their fingers. . . . 
We came here to Carlscrona, a few days since. In three 
weeks we intend going [Polheim and himself] to Got- 
tenburg, and afterward to Trollhatta, Wenern, Galmar, 
and Gullspong, to survey localities for sluices, to which 
his Majesty seems inclined, &c, &c. 

"Em. Swedenboeg. 
" Ceonhjelm." 

In 1718, tlie king resolved to lay siege to Fred- 
eriekshall, an important Norwegian fortress ; so he 
called Swedenborg's engineering skill to his assist- 
ance. On carriages of his own invention, he 
wheeled " two galleys, five large boats, and a sloop," 
overland from Stromstadt to Idorfjol, a distance of 
fourteen miles. Under cover of these vessels, the 
king was enabled to transport on pontoons heavy 



32 EXEEAOEDIXAEI ASSESSOR 

artillery under the walls of Frederiekskall. In a 
letter to his brother-in-law at this time he says — 

" Wekneksborg, Sept. 14th, 1718. 

" I found his Majesty very gracious to me, more so 
than I could expect, which is a good omen for the future. 
Count Mornir also showed me all the favor I could 
possibly desire. Every day I laid mathematical sub- 
jects before his Majesty, who allowed eA*erytking to 
please him. When the eclipse took place, I had his 
Majesty out to see it, and we reasoned much thereon, 
etc., ^c."' 

Although these matters relate more directlv to his 
career as a scientist and government official, than 
to his Masonic career, yet they show his position, 
associations, and opportunities of exercising that in- 
fluence in high life which marked his future. They 
will enable us to see why his opinions had such an 
extraordinary influence over those in his country 
who occupied high Masonic official stations. The 
following letter has just been received from Pro- 
fessor Tafel, who has been sent to Sweden for the 
express purpose of gathering up, securing, and photo- 
lithographing all the original MSS. of Sweden- 
borg. now in the custody of the Academy of Sciences 
at Stockholm, and other places, public and private. 

"While waiting for orders about the photoditho- 



IN THE COLLEGE OF MINES. 33 

graphing of the MSS., I went to the College of Mines, 
with which Swedenborg was connected for nearly thirty 
years, in order to collect there materials for his biog- 
raphy. I was astonished at the quantity of interesting 
information I found there concealed. The Councillor 
of Commerce, Herr Stenberg, very obligingly threw 
open the whole of its treasures to me. In the first 
place he installed me in a very comfortable room for 
working, and then had brought to me the Minutes of 
the Proceedings of the College from 1717, when Swe- 
denborg became connected with it, to 174 7, when he took 
his final leave from it. The minutes of each year fill 
one or two volumes consisting of upward of 4,000 
pages. Each volume has a minute index, and the min- 
utes of each day begin with a statement of the members 
of the College present at each meeting, and stating the 
excuses of the absent members. This part of the Min- 
utes is of the greatest importance for Swedenborg's 
biographer; for he finds there recorded Swedenborg's 
daily life for nearly twenty-five years. By means of it, 
he can tell precisely when he was in Stockholm, and 
w T hen he left it ; and where he went upon leaving it. 
Swedenborg's state of health is also there recorded. 
His first absence from the College on account of ill- 
health was in 1731, w T hen he was forty-three years old. 
His sickness then lasted from April 2d till May 4th. 
The only other time when he was indisposed for a 
number of days was in 1732, when he was sick from 
October 18th to 27th. Until July, 1743, he reported 
regularly almost every day for work. And with the 



34 EXTRAORDINARY ASSESSOR 

exception of the middle of summer, when he was gener- 
ally on a commission among the Swedish mines and 
furnaces, he was never absent from his post. Some- 
times also he was prevented by his duties at the Swedish 
Diet from appearing in the College ; and twice he was 
absent on the Continent on leave of absence ; the first 
time from May 1, 1733, to July 1, 1734, and the second 
time from July 10, 1736, to Nov. 3, 1740. The first 
time he was absent in order to print his 'Principia,' 
and the second time to collect his materials for his 
6 Animal Kino-dom.' During; his second absence, from 
1736 to 1740, he gave up half of his salary, and paid a 
substitute with it. The same he did again in 1743, 
when he left Sweden for the third time, and did not re- 
turn again until August 22, 1745. After his return to 
Sweden in 1745, he continued to pay a substitute with 
half of his salary, and did not report regularly for 
work ; still he continued to visit the College about every 
other day until July 17, 1747, when he took his final 
leave from it. But let me describe what the College of 
Mines, or the ' Bergs Collegium,' was in Swedenborg's 
time, and what was the occupation of an assessor there. 
The College of Mines was, in his time, the Department 
of Mines and the Court of Mines combined. It had 
administrative and judiciary powers in all matters per- 
taining to the Mines. It received reports from all the 
mines and furnaces in Sweden, through its officers, 
several of whom were stationed in every mining district, 
and all disputes arising among the owners and workers 
of mines were judged by it. 



IN THE COLLEGE OF MINES. 35 

"At Swedenborg's time the College of Mines con- 
sisted of the president, who always belonged to the 
highest nobility ; the councillors of mines, called i bergs- 
radet ;' and about six assessors. Each of the members 
of the board had one vote. The assessors were ranked 
according to the date of their commission ; and the as- 
sessor highest in rank became a ' bergsrad' whenever a 
vacancy occurred. When Swedenborg retired from the 
board, he was the assessor highest in rank, and at the 
next opportunity he would have become a ' bergsrad.' 
From 1717 to July, 1724, Swedenborg had no salary; 
from July, 1724, to June, 1730, he had the salary of a 
* bergmaster,' which was 800 rixdollars silver mint; 
and from June, 1730, until his retirement from office he 
had the full salary of an assessor, which was 1,200 rix- 
dollars silver mint ; but, as stated above, from 1736 to 
1740, and again from 1743 to 1747, he gave up volun- 
tarily half of his salary, and paid a substitute with it. 
Swedenborg's career in the College of Mines was quite 
unprecedented, he being the only assessor extraordina- 
rius on record. The usual route to become assessor of 
the College was as follows. After leaving the Univer- 
sity, the candidate had to pass an examination, in order 
to become an auscultant or notary , in which capacity 
he was allowed to work as a clerk in the Department 
of Mines, but without becoming entitled to a salary. 
After being an ' auscultant' or ' notary' for some time, 
he became a ' bergmaster 1 or l master of mines,' or the 
highest official in a mining district; from a 'berg- 
master' he finally became an ' assessor ,' and in the end 



36 EXTRAORDINARY ASSESSOR 

a 'bergsracV or 'councillor of mines.' Most of the 
aspirants in the Department of Mines never rose higher 
than a ' bergmaster,' but Swedenborg, without passing 
through an examination, and without being first an 
'auscultant' or 'notary,' and afterward a 'berg- 
master,' became at once by a decree of Charles XII., 
on account of his eminent merits as a mathematician 
and mechanician, assessor extr aor dinar ius. 

"In addition to the Minutes of Proceedings from 1717 
to 1747, which fill about fifty heavy volumes, and all of 
which I had to examine carefully, I found in another col- 
lection of large volumes all the letters and papers ad- 
dressed by Swedenborg to the College of Mines. Some 
of these letters are quite valuable, and I shall have them 
copied by the photo-lithographic process. Among these 
papers there is also the whole of Swedenborg's lawsuit 
with Br. La Behm ; the most important documents of 
which I copied myself, without waiting for assessor 
Bergstram to do it for me. I am now so familiar with 
Swedish documents and writings, that I no longer need 
any help in either copying or translating them. I found 
at the College also a copy of all the royal orders and 
decrees concerning Swedenborg. The two of Charles 
XII., by which Swedenborg obtained his appointment, 
which papers are quite characteristic, I shall also have 
copied by the photo-lithographic process. All the other 
orders I copied by hand. The work at the College of 
Mines occupied me about four weeks. To-morrow Mr. 
Flemming will introduce me at the ' Reichsarchia,' 
where I shall find Swedenborg's letters addressed to the 



IN THE COLLEGE OF MINES. 37 

king, and perhaps some other documents ; and after 
that I shall adjourn to the ' Riddarhuset,' where the 
records of the Swedish Diet are kept. 

"About the missing MSS. and letters, I have as yet 
not taken any steps, but I shall wait until the next 
meeting of the Academy of Sciences, in September. At 
the request of the president of the Academy, I am pre- 
paring for them a minute report about the missing 
manuscripts. Upon receiving my report, the Academy 
will appoint a committee, whose business it will be to 
institute a systematic search after the lost MSS. The 
Academy intend to place me upon this committee, and 
they are naturally anxious that I should continue as 
long as possible in Sweden. Backed by the authority 
of the Academy, and personally aided by them, I ex- 
pect that everything that is possible to be found about 
Swedenborg in Sweden will be found. The Academy 
have not hitherto taken any steps at all in this direction, 
and the appointment of this committee will be a great 
point gained. . . . 

"R. L. Tafel. 
" Stockholm, Aug. 5th, 1.869." 



TRAVELS— VISITS TO LODGES. 



1716-1740. 



III. 

Travels — Visits to Lodges. 

At this period, York Freemasonry underwent a 
radical reorganization. If we look at it about 1716, 
We shall find it to consist of three degrees only, and 
them chiefly operative. In England, Sweden, Hol- 
land, and France, we search in vain for evidence of 
a Lodge of pure speculative Masonry. The opera- 
tive Lodges preserved and transmitted Masonic se ■ 
crets, taught morality and theoretical science, and 
received amongst their members kings, peers, and 
prelates, who were lovers of architectural studies 
and pursuits ; thus blending speculative with oper- 
ative Masonry, until the latter was excluded at the 
Revival of the order in 1717. In that year it w 7 as 
determined, in the First Grand Lodge, "that the 
privileges of Masonry should no longer be restricted 
to operative 31asons, but extend to men of various 
professions, provided they were regularly approved 
and initiated into the order." 

In those days the privilege of assembling as Ma- 
sons had hitherto been unlimited, and a number 
who might assemble together could work a Lodge 



42 swedenboeg's teavees. 

without charter, or any other sanction than their 
knowledge of each other. This accounts for the 
existence of Lodges and Encampments on the field 
of battle, in the army of King Charles XII., without 
the sanction or charter of any Grand Lodge, and 
subject to the will of the commander. 

In every estimate we are able to form of York 
Freemasonry, the foundation on which we must in- 
variably build is the system as it was promulgated 
at the Revival in 1717. This is a rock which will 
firmly sustain any edifice that may be placed upon 
it ; for it is the only fact established by authority. 
No authentic records precede it, which treat of Free- 
masonry as a perfect system. The connecting links 
were burnt to ashes and cast to oblivion by the 
brethren themselves, as a measure of safety — all old 
records were destroyed. 

Swedenborg, therefore, came upon the stage at a 
time when Freemasonry underwent that reorganiza- 
tion which has given it the spirit and form it now 
radically possesses. The agitation which gave birth 
to its Bevival in England in 1717, had also its in- 
fluence in Holland and Sweden. Knowing that 
Swedenborg was intimate with Charles XII., the 
brethren solicited him to urge upon their warlike 
monarch the propriety of initiating a similar Bevival 



VISITS TO LODGES. 43 

of Freemasonry in Sweden, especially Sublime and 
Ineffable Masonry and the high Templar degrees, as 
they would keep up the warlike spirit of his people, 
and be serviceable to his army, then in the field. 
He accepted the task, and went to Altenstedt to 
consult with the king personally. His mission was 
successful, and Lodges and Encampments were at 
once established under the sanction of royal au- 
thority. But being only temporary and without 
charters, and dependent on the convenience of the 
chiefs, they fell into disuse after the death of the 
monarch in 1718. 

Another Revival of Freemasonry in England and 
Europe took place in 1736. Grand Lodges had 
been established in England, Scotland, and France. 
Swedenborg and his associates determined to intro- 
duce the system of Grand Lodges into Sweden. 
They applied to the Grand Lodge of England, and 
obtained the necessary documents authorizing them 
to work. Stockholm, where Swedenborg resided, 
was the first to begin. The Lodge Absalom, at Ham- 
burg, was authorized in 1733, but did not begin 
until Dec. 6, 1737 ; nor did it adopt any name or 
title until 1741. The Lodge in Stockholm was au- 
thorized by John Campbell, Earl of Loudoun, Grand 
Master. 



44 swedenboeg's teayels. 

Swedenborg now asked leave of absence for a sec- 
ond trip to Southern Europe, and obtained it, paying 
half his salary to a substitute for attending to his cleri- 
cal duties at the Board of Mines. He started July 
10, 1736, and visited Copenhagen, Hamburg, Han- 
over, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, 
and Picardy. He arrived in Paris, Sept. 3d, where 
he remained one and a half years — including Sep- 
tember, October, November, and December months 
of 1736, 1737, to March 12, 1738. 

Whilst at Paris, he visited a Lodge working under 
a charter granted in 1725, by the Grand Lodge of 
England to Lord Derwentwater, Maskelyne, Higuet- 
try, and a few English and French, who met at an 
eating-house in the Rue de Boucheries. Lord Har- 
nouester had succeeded to the Mastership. Sweden- 
borg spent much of his spare time, during 1737, with 
his Masonic acquaintances of this Lodge. At the 
end of the year, the Master convened the members 
for the election of a Provincial Grand Master. The 
king had heard of it, and threatened that if a 
Frenchman was elected, he would commit him to 
the Bastile. Nevertheless, a Frenchman, Due d'An- 
tim, was elected. On Dec. 27th, when the brethren 
were assembled at the festival of St. John, in the 
Rue de Deux Ecus, at Paris, several arrests were 



VISITS TO LODGES. 45 

made, and some of the officers were imprisoned. 
Among the arrested was Swedenborg, who had been 
invited to be present. But being only a visitor and 
a foreigner, he was released and admonished. He 
was at once placed under police surveillance, which 
gave him so much annoyance that, on March 12th, 
1738, he deemed it prudent to quit Paris. A con- 
firmation of these arrests will be found in the Acta 
Latomorum, sub anno 1737. 

From Paris he went to Lyons, across the Alps, and 
reached Turin in April. He then turned to Milan, 
Venice, Rome, Florence, Leghorn, and reached 
Genoa in March, 1739. In April he turned back to 
Paris, and remained there secluded, almost incognito, 
a whole year, studying and writing, and seeing his 
Masonic and other friends, until July, 1740. Thence 
he directed his steps homeward along the Rhine, 
stopping at Amsterdam to publish his Economy of 
the Animal Kingdom : afterward stopping at Leipsic 
to publish a poem of ten verses, celebrating the 
Third Centenary of the art of printing ; and, finally, 
reported himself at the Board of Mines in Stock- 
holm, Nov. 3d, 1740. 

On his way back from Leipsic he called upon 
Prince Frederick of Prussia, who had been initiated 
during his absence, on Aug. 15, 1739. But during 



46 swedenboeg's thavels. 

the entire route from Paris, lie also visited Lodges 
in Heidelberg, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Leipsic, and 
Berlin. 

From Paris lie struck across the country of the 
Lower Rhine, aiming for Amsterdam. He stopped 
at Hildburgshausen, and visited Lodge Ernestus. 
[One of the editions of his scientific works was pub- 
lished at this place in 1754.] A knowledge of his 
visits to other Lodges was obtained partly from 
members of "Absalom Lodge" in Hamburg; and 
from Worshipful Past Master of " Concord" Lodge 
in Berlin, Johan Christian Anton Theden, who had 
been the Royal Prussian Head Surgeon of the 
Army, and was well known for his excellent works 
on surgery. He was present when Swedenborg 
visited a Lodge at Berlin, and heard him speak of 
the Lodges he had visited, and the incidents form- 
ing his Masonic experience in Paris. 

This same gentleman was also present at the 
Convention held at Wittshone : he was one of the 
parties who spoke and testified that Swedenborg 
had been a member of the Scottish Bite, or of the 
Order of Sublime and Ineffable Masonry. He re- 
membered that King Gustavus III., and his brother, 
the Duke Charles of Sudermania, spoke of their 
personal intimacy with Swedenborg, and testified in 



VISITS TO LODGES. 47 

the highest terms of his learning, his Masonic 
career, and of his great personal worth. Mr. 
Theden was seventy-three years of age when at 
the Convention, and had then been Master of Con- 
cord Lodge at Berlin about two years, from 1785- 
1787. He was a member of the Bite of Strict Ob- 
servance, and was called " Frater Masteo" among the 
Rose Croix Masons. 

He took the trip to this Convention, because it 
was his fiftieth year of being in office. He returned 
to Berlin the same month, June, 1787 ; and in the 
month following, his friends presented him with a 
Medal, dated July 20, 1787, on which his "Fiftieth 
Jubilee of Office" was inscribed. At the festival 
held when the medal was struck, he was honored by 
the attendance of Duke Frederick of Brunswick, 
the Crown Prince, and Prince Ludwig of Prussia. 
It was about three years afterward (about 1790), 
when he furnished this information. He was then 
about seventy-six years old, and had that year given 
up the Mastership of Concord Lodge. Mr. Theden 
was an intelligent Swedenborgian, and a worthy 
Mason, and the knowledge of this fact led to his 
being sought out and found by a gentleman of the 
same city, Berlin, whom we shall now introduce. 

Another person from whom information has been 



4:8 swedenbokg's tbavels. 

obtained respecting Swedenborg, about the years 
1755-1770, was Christopher Frederic Nicolai, book- 
seller of Berlin. He was the editor and main con- 
tributor to two German periodicals of high literary 
character, and a learned writer on science and 
philosophy. He was an intimate friend of Leasing 
and the illustrious Mendelssohn, both of whose 
works he edited. All three were members of the 
Scottish Rite : and both he and Lessing were 
writers on the History of Freemasonry. About the 
year 1776, when Lessing stopped at Berlin on his 
return from Italy, Nicolai and he spent much of 
their time in discussing the vexed question of the 
origin of Freemasonry. Swedenborg's name, system, 
and history would oftentimes come into the range 
of this discussion ; and his relation to the Free- 
masonry of the time became a special subject of 
research. Much valuable information, published as 
news of the day, was collected and preserved by 
these two educated historians, which was left in the 
hands of Nicolai, and ultimately fell into our hands 
by actual purchase. Mr. Theden was well known to 
Nicolai, and was intimate with him to the day of 
Theden's death. We found memoranda of Theden's 
visit to the Convention at Wittshofle, with particulars 
of the lecture delivered on that occasion, which 



MASONIC ASSOCIATIONS. 49 

Theden had obviously furnished to Nicolai as inter- 
esting material bearing upon Masonic History, so 
far as Swedenborg is concerned. 

When Swedenborg next visited Paris, in 1769, to 
publish his last work, " True Christian Religion," 
he remembered the French police and his arrest ; 
for in writing to Dr. Beyer, in March, 1769, he says : 
" In about a month I am going from hence to Paris, 
. and that with a design which beforehand must not 
be made public." Four or five times he fixed upon 
the day of departure ; for his enemies were watch- 
ing his movements with a view to his arrest. He 
left Stockholm secretly about the beginning of June, 
and returned from Paris at the beginning of Oct., 
1769. His trip lasted only three months. On his 
return, a letter was published in Gottenburg, charg- 
ing him with being ordered in Paris to depart from 
the city. This he admits to Dr. Beyer, in a letter 
dated Oct., 1769, which has been preserved in the 
"Documents." The fact is, Swedenborg was sup- 
posed at this period to be a secret organizer and 
instigator of a number of secret Masonic orders, 
which were being promulgated for the first time — it 
was the time of their inception ; and they were as- 
sociated with his name and doctrines, by spurious 
and unscrupulous advocates of mutilated portions 

3 



50 swedenboeg's travels. 

of his religious system. This excited suspicion in 
Sweden, Holland, and France, especially the latter, 
where secret societies were organized for purely 
political and atheistic purposes. 

Application was made by M. Parraud, one of the 
French editors of The True Christian Religion, Paris, 
1802, to M. Cheyreuil, royal censor of the press in 
1769, to know whether such a police order had been 
given to Swedenborg. He declared the report a 
fabrication ; but that some of his enemies had ob- 
tained a knowledge of his arrest in Paris in 1737. 
His sudden departure from Paris was the result of a 
suspicion, which Swedenborg himself entertained, 
that his enemies in Gottenburg were at that time 
plotting his arrest even in Sweden, which might more 
conveniently have been done successfully in France, 
under the excuse of his supposed relation to the secret 
societies which were then being organized in his name. 
He went to publish his " True Christian Religion," 
but could not have the imprint he desired ; so he 
returned to watch his interests, and to protect his 
intimate friends Drs. Beyer and Eosen, who were 
Professors and members in the Ecclesiastical Con- 
sistory which was the nest of all persecution against 
his writings, and the hotbed of Zinnendorf s sjmri- 
ous Swedenborgian degrees. These Professors had 



MASONIC ASSOCIATIONS. 51 

been threatened, like Swedenborg, with either arrest 
or expulsion from the country. 

A French work, the Biographie Universelle circu- 
lates a rumor in relation to this French journey 
which contains a grain of truth mixed up with pre- 
posterous falsehood. An artist named Elie is alleged 
to have supplied him with money and furthered his 
presumed designs. The same work also accuses him 
with being leagued with the Illuminees and the secret 
societies of France, who cultivated a certain politico- 
theological Freemasonry.* The first charge is a 
preposterous but amusing blunder. Our researches 
have elicited the fact, that the artist Elie is really 
Le petit Elu, not a man of that name, but an Order 
so called, whose members were charged with further- 
ing his designs. This degree was manufactured in 
1743, by the Masons of Lyons, as a political specu- 
lation. It was deistical, and all the Elu degrees 
were but modifications of this pernicious degree. 
It was received with avidity, notwithstanding its 
irreligious tendency, by all the Lodges into which 
it was introduced. So successful was this attempt, 
that innumerable Orders sprang up as from a hotbed, 



* Wilkinson'' s Biography, p. 177. White's Biography, Vol. II., 
pp. 446, 459. 



52 swedenboeg's teavels. 

and were divided into three classes, viz. : 1. Symbol- 
ical or blue ; 2. Capitular, or red ; 3. Philosophical. 
Martin Paschal introduced a rite founded on the 
Elus, which he called the Le Rite des Elus, Coens 
or Priests, into certain Lodges at Marseilles, Tou- 
louse, and Bordeaux ; which consisted of nine de- 
grees — all deistical and political. 

His presence in Paris became known through 
Count de Eohan, who had, in 1766, received a letter 
and present of two copies of the Apocalypsis Revelata 
from Swedenborg, for which he deemed it proper to 
wait upon the learned Swede, who was on a tempo- 
rary visit to Paris. What passed between them we 
cannot tell, but Cardinal de Eohan was a leader in 
the Scottish Rite, and made the illustrious foreigner's 
presence known. So, shortly after, several Masonic 
chiefs from Lodges of the Elu Order, waited upon 
Swedenborg, and offered to organize all the Lodges 
of their Order into a Grand Body, and place them 
under the management of the illustrious Swede, 
which honor he declined. The preliminary meet- 
ings which had been held before the resolution to 
make such an overture had been determined, had 
excited attention, and given rise to a rumor which 
implied that Swedenborg was abetting or urging 
such a combination, which came to the ears of the 



MASONIC ASSOCIATIONS. 53 

Cardinal, unpleasantly, and led to the Assessor 
being visited by a member of the department, whom 
he referred to M. Creutz, the Swedish Consul, and 
M. Chevreuil, censor royal, who explained the 
object of his presence in Paris. The story of the 
artist Elie and his furthering Swedenborg's plans 
and designs, has no other foundation than what this 
visit and proposition of the artists of Le petit Elu 
could have originated. 

A few months afterward, in 1770, a large number 
of Lodges and Chapters — tired of the schisms and 
fabrication of so many new orders, sects, and dis- 
cordant bodies, claiming independent rights and 
authorities — met and organized a Grand Lodge at 
Lyons, with the title of " Loge des Chevaliers Bien- 
faisants de la Saint Cite," and appointed the Due de 
Chart-res their Grand Master, and he selected the 
Due de Luxembourg his deputy. This Grand Lodge 
had two hundred and sixty-six Lodges under its 
jurisdiction. Subsequently the Paris Lodges organ- 
ized into a Grand Lodge, with the magnificent title 
of The Gkand Orient, which at once swallowed up 
the Loge des Chevaliers Bienfaisants, the latter merged 
into the former ; and, of course, the Due de Chartres 
(afterward Orleans) remained the Grand Master of 
the amalgamated body. 



54 swedenborg's teayels. 

This Grand Orient, which became the ruling 
body, after a protracted struggle, and absorbed 
every other directory of the Scottish Kite in Eu- 
rope, was the one which was placed at the feet of 
Swedenborg in the fall of 1769, by the Lodges of 
Paris, who knew that Swedenborg had been initiated 
into the Scottish Rite at the beginning of the cen- 
tury ; and whose name and system had already been 
mixed up with more degrees than those of any other 
man ; and the several parts of the Rite had under- 
gone their main transformations from the followers 
of his system. 

Swedenborg's reference to the Swedish Consul in 
Paris for proof that he was not ordered to quit the city 
of Paris by the authorities, seems a little suspicious, 
although natural. Something must have occurred 
which made it necessary to appeal to him when in 
Paris, or explain to him the occasion of Swedenborg's 
sudden departure. There must be a grain of truth 
in the rumor which appears to have so generally 
prevailed at this time — as prevalent in France as in 
Sweden : he must either have made overtures to the 
parties then seeking to organize into one Grand 
Body, called the Grand Orient, or else they must 
have made overtures to him. The latter seems 
most probable. At any rate, the letter published 



MASONIC ASSOCIATIONS. 55 

in Gottenburg after his return, charging him with be- 
ing ordered in Paris to depart from the city, shows 
clearly that his enemies at Gottenburg had been 
watching and tracking his movements, and had 
noticed his hasty return from Paris ; and that some- 
thing unusual had occurred there. 

The celebrated French scientist De Lalande, had 
that year, 1769, instituted the Lodge Des Sciences, 
and was working it independently in connection 
with the Scottish Rite, with the aid of a few other 
eminent men of science. He also visited the Swe- 
dish philosopher at his lodgings ; and in his official 
capacity, as the Worshipful Master, invited the 
Swede to visit his Lodge whilst he remained in 
Paris. None but the scientists of France were ad- 
mitted, except by invitation. And we have the attes- 
tation of De Lalande that Swedenborg attended one 
of the meetings. Here he met George Forster, Yer- 
net, Count de Gebelin, and others. Lalande was the 
Worshipful Master presiding. The name of this 
Lodge was subsequently changed to Des Neuf Soeurs 
(The Nine Muses), w T hen it worked under a charter 
granted by the Grand Orient. The number of its 
members increased very rapidly, and each of the 
Nine Muses may be said to have been represented 
by men distinguished by the very highest attain- 



56 swedenbobg's teavels. 

nients and renown in science and literature. Before 
1778, it had on its Register the names of Benjamin 
Franklin, Yoltaire (who was introduced by Frank- 
lin 1 . Pamy, Pioucher, Fontanes, Turpin, Count de 
Gebelin, George Forster, Piccini, and others, inclu- 
ding some of the first savans in France. 

At every meeting, lectures were delivered by its 
members on some philosophical, historical, or ex- 
perimental subject. A sum of money was voted 
annually for the relief of some school or institute of 
learning or charity — specifically for the use of indi- 
gent pupils. The Lodge supported three appren- 
tices to the mechanical arts, finding food, clothing, 
instruction, and professional fees. 

TTe cannot trace his presence in any Lodge after 
the year 1740, excepting this one visit to the Lodge 
Des Sciences, in 1769. 

He appears to have dropped all association with 
everything purely secular, when his new mission 
was imposed upon him : he was obedient in heart 
and soul to the call, and preferred those spiritual 
associations which he claims were opened to him in 
the year of his call, 1745. In that year he claims 
to have had a divine call to become the Herald of a 
ZSew Dispensation of goodness and truth to man- 
kind ; and to have had his spiritual sight opened, so 



HIS NEW MISSION. 57 

as to be able to see and openly converse with the 
spirits of departed persons ; and to have had his 
mind enlightened so as to see rationally all the great 
facts and laws of the unseen world, and that inner 
and divine sense within the literal rendering of the 
Scriptures, which essentially constitutes Divine Rev- 
elation. He asked permission from his sovereign to 
retire from the Assessorship, and devote both time 
and attention to his new duties, as the herald of a 
new order of light, love, and truth. 

In a letter, dated London, 1769, sent by Sweden- 
borg to Eev. Thos. Hartley, he says : 

"I am a fellow, by invitation, of the Royal Acad- 
emy of Sciences at Stockholm, but have never sought 
admission into any other literary society^ as I belong to 
an angelic society," &c. 

This statement has led some to suppose that Swe- 
denborg's language plainly implies that he never 
sought admission into any Masonic society, and so 
question his initiation into the fraternity. But this 
interpretation is simply a misconception of his mean- 
ing. He was a Fellow, by diploma, of three eminent 
literary societies, as the following will testify : 

Member of Academy of Science at Upsala, diploma 1729. 

" " Petersburg, diploma 1734. 

" ( ' " Stockholm, diploma 1739. 



58 HIS NEW MISSION. 

What he really meant was simply, that by invita- 
tion he still associated with the members of the 
Academy at Stockholm, where he resided ; but he 
had concluded to drop all association and inter- 
course with every other literary society. And we 
know that such was the fact, for he continued to 
send papers to the Academy in Stockholm. The 
interpretation given to his words by those who 
question his initiation into a Masonic society, on 
the ground of his letter just cited, cannot be 
the true one, for they might as well doubt his 
diplomas and membership into the literary so- 
cieties of Upsala and Petersburg, both of which 
he had accepted before his admission into the Acad- 
emy at Stockholm. "Whether he had sought admis- 
sion into these societies, we can never tell ; but he 
had been admitted, and had received the diploma of 
membership ; and that fact settles the question 
raised upon the interpretation of his language. 
Residing in Stockholm, where the Academy held 
its sittings, he had been pressed or invited to con- 
tinue his association with it. 

His meaning is obvious enough. His memory 
was wonderfully strong, and he could not possibly 
have forgotten that he was then a member of other 
Academies at Upsala and Petersburg, as well as 



HIS NEW MISSION. 59 

Stockholm. He simply meant, that he had neither 
time nor inclination to devote to any other literary 
society than the Academy of Stockholm, where he 
resided — " he sought for or desired no other." It 
was the last Academy he had joined, and he had 
never sought admission into any other literary 
society since ; for, six years after joining the Acad- 
emy, 1739-1745, his new mission began, and then he 
had no desire for any other literary societies than 
those he had already joined. This is evidently his 
meaning, unless we suppose he had forgotten his 
being a member of other Academies than that at 
Stockholm. 



HOW THE SWEDENBORGIAN RITE 
BEGAN. 



IV. 



HOYvf THE SWEDENBORGIAN RITE BEGAN. 

It is perhaps to be deplored that Swedenborgian 
Masons, from the very beginning, followed the an- 
cient custom of York Masons, prior to the establish- 
ment of Grand Lodges — to set up independent 
Lodges at such times and places as they found most 
convenient, and then to meet, or agree upon holding 
a convention, without any regard to the possession 
of a charter, or the sanction of any supreme author- 
ity. Perhaps this deplorable custom did more at 
the beginning — when the Swedenborgian Ritual 
came into use — to aid, encourage, and foster the 
manufacture of spurious orders and degrees, 
than anything else. In fact, all the evils which 
have sprung from the Zinnendorf, Pernetti, Chas- 
tanier, and other systems, came directly from this 
bad and pernicious custom. Had a supreme organ- 
izing body been elected, and the Lodges worked 
by charters granted by such body, then but few if 
any spurious degrees of a Swedenborgian character 



64 SCHOOLS OF SYMBOLIC SCIENCE. 

would have arisen to perplex and bewilder the stu- 
dent of Symbolic Masonry. 

Swedenborg has always been some way mythically 
connected with Masonry, and his doctrines and sys- 
tem appear to have exercised a wider and more 
potent influence on its history than those of any 
other man, living or dead. On account of the agree- 
ment between the symbolic teaching of Freemason- 
ry and the religious symbolic system of the New 
Dispensation which he revealed to the world, all 
intelligent Masons who have investigated the two 
systems have admitted, that Swedenborg is destined 
to become one of the most celebrated Reformers of 
Freemasonry. The change will be gradual, but will 
be as certain as any result is certain to follow the 
conditions which immediately precede and constitute 
it. The capacity of his system to effect such a re- 
formation is obvious enough to those who under- 
stand it ; but any observant mind may see from 
what it has already done — though it has had the 
most villainous adulteration with ignorance, folly, 
fanaticism, and mythical fancy — what it is capable 
of doing, and what it may possibly do, when pre- 
sented in all its purity by an intelligent and system- 
atic application of its symbolic science to Symbolic 
Freemasonry. 



IT CAME WHEN WANTED. 65 

When his system was first published, it was the 
very thing which intelligent and religious Masons 
wanted. It came as opportunely as the discovery of 
gold filling the rocks, rivers, and sands of "California. 
It burst upon the world like a flood of light ; and 
its claims had all the appearance of a miracle. It 
was in fact an interior system of Masonry, and its 
parts were seen as shadows in the Masonic symbols 
now in use. It was a superior and invisible world of 
symbols, corresponding with those seen on the 
visible and moral plane, but reduced to a system as 
perfect and demonstrable as any science in physics. 
As the Apostle says, " The invisible things are clearly 
seen by the things that are made." The outer 
world is seen as a Masonic symbol and image of an 
inner world — the ideal in the actual and concrete. 

Why should we wonder that his system gave such 
impetus to system-makers? Orders and degrees, 
based upon it, sprung up everywhere. His followers 
called upon Freemasons of every grade to join 
them ; for the new system was symbolic in its most 
eminent sense, and was in fact the perfection of that 
symbolic teaching which Masonry promised, but did 
not fulfil by scientific methods. It was a giant 
system, compared with that which prevailed in the 
Lodges. The latter is the vestige of a system which 



66 IT WAS A MINT TO FABKICATOKS. 

has been lost in the ages gone by ; and its revival 
in 1717 was symbolism in its infancy, as it was 
having birth in an age of darkness, confusion, and 
persecution. His system brought what Masonry 
had all along promised. It was glorious in its ap- 
parel, and needed only the dramatic form of illus- 
tration to exhibit it in all its promised loveliness. 
We need not wonder, then, that the most influential, 
active, and intelligent Masons used it to embellish, 
extend, and improve the higher degrees of Sublime 
and Ineffable Masonry, as they were then taught by 
men utterly ignorant of anything but the first prin- 
ciples of symbolism, as seen in operative Masonry. 
His system was used as if it were a Mint, where new 
symbolic ideas could be coined and have whatever 
impress the coiners chose to give them. From this 
Mint, we are now certain, Cagliostro, Abbe Pernetti, 
Mesmer, Chastanier, St. Martin, Chevalier Sava- 
lette de la Lange, and Zinnendorf got whatever is 
valuable in their systems ; they were a few of the 
earliest offshoots of the Swedenborgian stream, and 
all were fabricators of spurious systems, based more 
or less upon the Swedenborgian Rite. 

Abbe Barruel, who is a reviler and traducer of 
both Swedenborg and Freemasonry, says he stayed 
some time at Wilhelmsbaden, and associated inti- 



ILLUMINISM REJECTED. 67 

matelj with the members of the Theosophical Illu- 
minati of that place, who were followers of both 
Sweclenborg and Weishaupt. The Theosophical 
IHuminati, he says, were all Swedenborgians, and 
were at first distinct from the followers or adepts 
of Weishaupt. He says : 

"I found the Theosophical Illuminees at Wilhelms- 
haden, and the part they acted at first in concurrence 
with Weishaupt, and afterward in union with him, 
obliged me to investigate their Sect (Swedenborgian.)" 
— llemoirs, p. 126. 

That the " Illuminati" had read and were fully ac- 
quainted with the contents of Swedenborg's works, 
and knew more or less of the Swedenborgian Kite, 
we would not deny nor doubt. Indeed, we are sure 
they had his works, and read them. But we are 
equally sure that the Swedenborgians proper — the 
advocates of his symbolic system and doctrines, 
pure and exclusive, without any admixture or dimi- 
nution — the Simon-pure Swedenborgians, would 
never associate, nor aid, nor abet, nor advocate, nor 
would they admit into their Associations, Lodges, or 
Societies, any man who was a professed member of 
the regime of the Illuminati. They shunned Abbe 
Pernetti, and refused to associate with him on that 



68 SWEDENBOBG ON PRIMITIVE MASOXEY. 

account, although he translated and published a 
French edition of Swedenborg's work on Heaven and 
Hell, and wrote a very flattering memoir of Sweden- 
borg for the preface. And when Count Cagliostro 
made overtures to the Swedenborgian society in 
London, after having remained with the society for 
several months, they rejected his proffered associa- 
tion altogether, without ever replying to his letter, 
as we shall explain at the close of this Essay. 

After Swedenborg had published his first theologi- 
cal works, and explained his new system through 
the instrumentality of the press, his old associates, 
and those who had known his former career as one 
of the most eminent introducers of the Scottish Rite 
and Templar degrees into Sweden, felt anxious to 
know his views, now that he had been commissioned 
to reveal to mankind a new order of truth and good- 
ness, and a more perfect system of symbolic and 
religious truth. They desired him to express his 
opinions on the old Masonic system from his new 
stand-point, its mythical and historic origin, what 
errors had crept into it, what changes had been 
made in it by time, ignorance, natural tradition, 
and custom. To all which he willingly gave full and 
interesting replies. He was often solicited to give 
his theory of the Primitive Eitual of all forms 



OFFERS TO EXPLAIN EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS. 69 

of Symbolic Masonry, ancient and modern. His 
new system of symbolism seemed to furnish a solu- 
tion of this problem, since its interior nature places 
it above or independent of all the accidents of his- 
tory or nationality. Symbolic Freineasonry he saw 
in a newer and clearer light. His discussions, expo- 
sitions, and corrections of the modern system en- 
abled his more intimate associates to see it also in 
this new light, and to replace the lost links in the Ma- 
sonic chain, which never could have been detected 
without the new science of correspondences or sym- 
bolic representation. For where correspondence 
was broken or irregular, there the representation 
was radically erroneous, the symbols misplaced, and 
the ritualistic lesson incorrect. 

These discussions, at a later date, 1769-1770, 
prompted by pertinent questions put by his Fellow- 
Academicians of the Eoyal Society of Stockholm, 
doubtless stimulated him to send a memorial to 
the Academy in relation to Egyptian hieroglyphics, 
which he offered to explain by means of his new 
symbolic system. He sent a copy of the same letter 
to Dr. Hartley, with a request that his circle of 
Swedenborgian friends would investigate the sub- 
ject in the new light. The letter begins as fol- 
lows : 



70 REVISION OF THE YORK RITE. 

" Inasmuch as the science of correspondences was the 
science of sciences, and the wisdom of the ancients, it is 
important that some Member of your Academy should 
direct his attention to that science. If it be desired, I 
am willing to unfold and publish the Egyptian hiero- 
glyphics, which are nothing else than correspondences, 
a task that no other person can accomplish." 

He had previously been just as willing to unfold 
the Masonic hieroglyphics of the ancient ritual of 
Freemasonry, and give his ideas on its original im- 
port, spirit, and design. 

From his personal explanations they at length 
replaced the several parts of the Masonic Eitual, 
and by an infallible system of correspondences, they 
were able to trace out and give coherence and con- 
sistency to its parts ; and by giving to each symbol 
its proper place in the first, second, or third degrees, 
they were able to make a much more perfect re- 
vision of Symbolic Masonry than anything that was 
done in 1717, or at any other period, from the tradi- 
tions of uneducated men, without any scientific sys- 
tem or method to guide their researches. At length 
Lodges were organized, opened, and worked with 
the Eevised Primitive and Original Eitual of Sym- 
bolic Freemasonry. 

The first Lodge was opened in Stockholm, some- 



LODGES OPENED AND WORKED. 71 

time between the year 1750-1755 : the exact date 
cannot be determined from documentary evidence, 
because the Lodge followed the old plan which pre- 
vailed about 1700, when Lodges did not meet regu- 
larly, and when they met without -charters, and 
without Grand Lodges. So that no official records 
were kept : all were private and without authority. 
Another Lodge was opened in Berlin, under the 
auspices of King Frederick, which, in like manner, 
consisted only of those who embraced the Sweden- 
borgian system of correspondences and symbolic 
representation. 

The Swedenborgian Eite was more systematically 
worked in Berlin than elsewhere ; for the Prussian 
monarch preferred it to all others. For several 
years before Swedenborg's death, King Frederick 
had become dissatisfied with every form of Free- 
masonry but the Swedenborgian, which included 
the three blue degrees of the York Bite. It is 
a matter of historic notoriety, that when Baron 
Hund introduced the rite of the " Strict Observ- 
ance," King Frederick approved the treaty made 
with Lord Petre, Grand Master in England, and the 
Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, Grand Master in Ger- 
many, giving the Grand Lodge of Berlin supreme 
Masonic authority over the whole of Germany : the 



72 THEIR EFFECT ON LEADING MASONS. 

object of King Frederick and the Swedenborgian 
Masons being to confine Masonry within the three 
blue degrees. The " Letters of Protection" of the 
king, approving the treaty, bear date July 16th, 
1774, and erected the Berlin Grand Lodge into a 
body corporate. They approved the treaty of Nov. 
30th, 1773, between the Grand Lodges of England 
and Germany. It is equally a notoriously historic 
fact, that King Frederick, from 1772-1786, or up to 
the day of his death, was a declared enemy of the 
higher degrees, whilst he did everything to encour- 
age the three blue symbolic degrees. He ceased to 
be a member of the higher degrees shortly before 
the Seven Years' War ; and he commanded such of 
his Ministers of State as belonged to the higher 
degrees to desist from visiting then- Lodges (Schlos- 
ser, vol. iv., p. 478). On the other hand, he had a 
Lodge working the Swedenborgian Rite under his 
own auspices, up to the day of his death. It was 
in this Court Lodge that Count Zinnendorf and 
Abbe Pernetti first heard of the Swedenborgian 
Rite, — two notable worthies, in relation to the spuri- 
ous degrees of Freemasonry, who mixed up spurious 
dogmas with precious jewels stolen from the Swe- 
denborgian Ritual. "We shall have something to 
say of them at the close of our Essay. 



CARRIED TO ENGLAND. 73 

C. F. Nordenskjold and Springer, members of the 
Stockholm Lodge, brought it to England, and com- 
municated it to Chastanier, Kobert Hindmarsh, Dr. 
Messiter, and others. Chastanier was the only one 
who ever attempted to work it in Lodges : it was 
invariably given by communication, and generally 
at a single sitting, at some private residence, as 
some of the higher degrees were then communi- 
cated — without the usual form'ality and ceremonies, 
and having the more familiar form of a private lec- 
ture than a Masonic ceremony. Some of our most 
eminent New York Masons have had the higher 
degrees conferred on them in this way, as a com- 
munication or private lecture, without the usual 
Masonic ceremonies ; it being perfectly constitu- 
tional to confer the degrees in this way. 



PART II, 

SWEDENBORGIAN MASONS 



THE 



GREAT LEADERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 



STRICT OBSERVANCE. 

TnE Reigxixg Duke Chaeles of Hesse-Darmstadt, 
Grand Master of all Germany — Generalissimo of 
Knights Templars in Denmark. 

The Duke was Grand Master of all Germany. In 
order to explain his action as Grand Master, in uni- 
ting with King Frederick at this particular time — so 
as to bring about the treaty of Nov. 30, 1773, in 
favor of a return to the pure Eclectical Masonry of 
the York Eite, so essential to the Sweclenborgian 
Eite, because constituting its three first degrees — 
it may be useful to show that Prince Louis George 
of Hesse-Darmstadt was a receiver of the new re- 
ligious system of Swedenborg, and an interested 
reader of his writings. 

The Duke wrote a letter to Swedenborg with his 
own hand, — asking the latter to send him all his 
works, and making further inquiries respecting his 
system, and certain reports concerning him as a 
seer and spiritual medium. Swedenborg had some 



78 STEICT OBSERVANCE. 

doubts about the signature, so lie showed the letter 
to the Duke's Minister, M. Yenator, who declared it 
genuine. The following is Swedenborg's reply 

Letter I. 
Swedenborg to the Duke of Hesse- Darmstadt. 

[Copy of original.] 

" Ad Landgravium de Hesse-Darmstadt : 

" Quando faventissimain tuani Epistolam accepi, 
dubius hsesi, num abs Te, Serenissime Dux, subscrif>ta 
sit vel non. Causam hujus dubitationis manifestavi 
Ministro Venatori, qui apud me fuit: at postquam 
audivi quod not ita sit, et sublatum est dubium, nunc 
reus factus sum, et moratus usque duni e typis nactus 
sum Opus Theologicum nuper impressum, nominatum, 
Yera Christiana Religio, &c. Ex quo duo Exemplaria 
ad Te, Serenissime Princeps, per currum, qui ex hac 
urbe quotidie in Germaniam emigrat, transmisi, &c. 
Quod librum Arcana Coelestia vocation concernit, ille 
non amplius invenitur, neque in Hollandia neque in 
Anglia. Sunt enim exemplaria vendita; at quia scio 
quod aliqui in Swecia ilia possideant, volo ad quendam 
ex illis scribere, et inquirere num velint pro aliquo 
pretio vendere? Pesponsum illorum, seu unum ex illis 

ut primum datum fuerit, communicabo, &c 

" Permaneo in veneratione, &c. 

" Emanuel Swedenborg. 
" Amstelodami, 1771." 



DUKE CHARLES OF HESSE-DARMSTADT. 79 

[Copy of the same in English.] 

Swederiborg to the Duke of Hesse- Darmstadt. 

"On the reception of your obliging letter, I was 
uncertain whether it was signed by you, Most Serene 
Duke, or by some other person. I communicated the 
subject of my uncertainty to M. Venator, your Min- 
ister, on his calling on me, who removed my doubt. I 
have deferred replying to your letter till I had received 
from the press the work entitled True Christian Re- 
ligion, &c, of which I send your Most Serene Highness 
two copies, by the stage which leaves this city every 
day for Germany. As to the work called Arcana 
Coelestia, it is not to be obtained any longer either in 
Holland or England; all the copies of it have been sold : 
but as I know that there are some in Sweden, I will 
write to the persons who have them, to know whether 
they will sell them at any price. I will communicate 
their answer to your Highness as soon as I receive it, 
&c. . . . 

" I am, with respect, &c, 

" Emanuel Swedenbokg. 
" Amsterdam, 1771." 



The Duke penned another letter, in his own hand, 
making still further inquiries in relation to the Swe- 
denborgian system, and Swedenborg sent him a 
second reply, as follows : 



80 STRICT OBSERVANCE. 

Letter II. 

Swedenborg to the Duke of Hesse- Darmstadt. 

[Copy of original.] 

" Ad Landgravium de Hesse-Darmstadt. 

" 13 Julii, 1771. 
"Litteras tuas, Serenissime Dux, ad me scriptas 
cum gaudio accepi et legi. Spero quod Opus novis- 
sime impressum, Vera Christiana Religio vocatum, post 
ilium diem in manus tuas pervenerit. Si placet ordines 
eruditi e clero qui in Ducatu Tuo sunt, judicia sua de 
illo aperiant. Sed precor ut eligantur eruditi e clero 
Tuo qui veritatem amant, et ilia delectantur, quia Veritas 
est ; si allii, non visuri sunt lucem in illo Opere ubique 

sed modo umbrani, &c 

" Yale et permaneo, &c. 

" Emanuel Swedenborg." 

[Copy of the same in English.] 

Swedenborg to the Duke of Hesse- Darmstadt. 

"I have received and read with pleasure the letter 
with which your Highness has honored me. I hope 
that the work just printed, under the title of The True 
Christian Religion^ has now reached you. You may 
write, if you please, to the learned ecclesiastics in your 
duchy, to give their judgment concerning it ; but I pray 
you to choose among them those who love the truth, 
and who love it only because it is the truth. If you take 
others^ they will see in this work no light, but only 



DUKE CHAELES OF HESSE-DAEMSTADT. 81 

darkness Treat favorably, I pray you, whatever 

has relation to the honor of God. 

"I am, with respect, &c, 

" Emanuel Sweuenboeg. 
" Amsterdam, 13 July, 1771." 

As " Generalissimo," or the second officer in the 
Order of Knights Templars, and as the Grand Mas- 
ter of Germany, the Duke knew well that Sweden- 
borg had been an eminent Mason of the Scottish 
Rite, and a member of all the high Chapter and 
Templar degrees. He was an avowed member of 
the Swedenborgian Lodge at Stockholm, and also a 
member of the Swedenborgian Lodge which was 
then in working order at the Court of Berlin. His 
knowledge of the Rite would be sure to make him 
dissatisfied with the spurious fabrications of the day. 

Two years after the correspondence which this 
Grand Master had with Swedenborg himself, and 
after reading the works sent to him by Swedenborg's 
own hand, in 1771, he consummated the treaty of 
Nov. 30, 1773, in favor of a return to the pure Ec- 
lectic Masonry of the York Rite. In Germany, 
the schisms of Hund, Zinnendorf, Weishaupt, and 
others, attracted attention ; and their innovations 
were propagated over the entire continent of 
Europe, and contributed to the popularity and num- 



82 STEICT OBSEBVANCE. 

bers of the new degrees, until the matters in dispute 
were partially compromised, in 1773, by a formal 
compact between the Grand Lodges of England and 
Germany ; Lord Petre being the Grand Master of 
the former, and the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt of 
the latter. 

The MS. from which these fragments of letters are 
taken, is not the original by Swedenborg, but a copy, 
in the handwriting of Benedict Chastanier, whose 
personal history we shall trace at the close of this 
Essay. He says that copies of certain unprinted 
MSS. of Swedenborg were sent to him by Augustus 
Nordenskjold, Esq., a member of the Royal Academy 
of Sciences, at Stockholm, who obtained them from 
the Academy as a loan, and sent them to England for 
publication. Chastanier received them, June 3, 1783. 
They were translated into French from the Latin 
original by Chastanier himself, and sent by him to 
the editor of the French translation of Swedenborg's 
True Christian Religion, which appeared in Paris, 
1802. But the Latin originals of the letters to the 
Prince of Hesse are preserved in a MS. volume, now 
in the custody of the Swedenborgian society at 
Stockholm. 

Upon searching the records of the Swedenbor- 
gian " Exegetical and Philanthropical Society" at Stock- 



DUKE CHARLES OF HESSE-DARMSTADT. 83 

holm, we find that — about twenty years after Sweden- 
borg had written the above letters to the Duke — this 
Prince openly acknowledged himself a Swedenbor- 
gian, and sent the following letter to this Sweden- 
borgian Society as a Brother, or as one of its mem- 
bers. His position shows that he was a prince of 
genius, learning, experience, and ability. 

[Copy of original.] 
" A LA SOCIETE ExEGETIQUE A STOCKHOLM. 

" Copenhagen", 19 Noveoihre, 1790. 
"II m'est bien agreable, Messieurs et tres Chers 
Freres, de trouver l'occasion favorable que le porteur 
de cette lettre me fournit, de vous temoigner toute ma 
joi des succes dont la Providence a beni votre zele et 
vos soins, et vos sollicitudes pour son service, que j'ai 
eu la satisfaction d'apprendre par lid et par Mr. Haldin. 
Veuille le Seigneur des Seigneurs vous combler de ses 
plus precieuses benedictions, et vous eclairer de la sa- 
gesse ! Que son Esprit repose sur vous, qu'il vous 
guide, qu'il vous consacre a la gloire d'etre ses servi- 
teurs ! Mes vceux ardens vous accompagnent sans cesse : 
agrees les, mes tres chers peres, de la part d'un frere, 
d'un ami absent, mais dont le cceur est toujours present 
avec ceux qui professent Pamour, et l'adoration de notre 
Seigneur et Maitre Jesus Christ ; a lui soit honneur et 
gloire a jamais. Je vous embrasse fraternellement en 
son saint nom du fond de mon cceur. 

" Chakles, Prince de Hesse." 



84 STRICT OBSERVANCE. 

[The same in English.] 
" TO THE EXEGETIC SOCIETY AT STOCKHOLM 

" Copenhagen, Nov. 19th, 1790. 
"It is very agreeable to me, Gentlemen and very 
Dear Brethren, to meet with so favorable an oppor- 
tunity, as the bearer of this letter furnishes me with, to 
declare to you the great pleasure I feel on the success 
with which the Divine Providence has blessed your zeal, 
your exertions, and diligence in his service, etc. May 
the Lord of lords confer on you his choicest blessings, 
and enlighten your wisdom, etc. My best wishes ac- 
company you without intermission; accept them, my 
very dear brethren, as proceeding from a Brother, from 
an absent friend, but from one whose heart is always 
present with those who profess to love and adore our 
Lord and Master Jesus Christ : to whom be honor and 
glory forever and ever. 

"Chahles, Prince of Hesse." 

This Society, in 1790, had a membership of two 
hundred persons : a goodly number had taken the 
Swedenborgian degrees ; most of them were men 
holding high offices in the State, and of distinguished 
learning. Many were clergymen, and two of them 
were the first Princes in Europe, who took upon 
themselves the patronage of the Society. In one 
single bishopric, no less than forty-six respectable 
and learned clergymen advocated the new religious 



DUKE CHARLES OP HESSE-DARMSTADT. 85 

system, propounded in the writings of Assessor 
Swedenborg. In another diocese, which contained 
about three hundred clergyman, and received an- 
nually a supply of ten young Ministers, it was no- 
ticed that six of the ten were Swedenborgians. It 
was estimated, that at this period no less than a 
hundred MS. copies of the new religious doctrines, 
and of the new symbolic system, were in circulation 
in the colleges among the young students. 

These facts and documents prove conclusively that 
Swedenborgianism pervaded all classes of the com- 
munity about 1780-1790. The Sweclenborgian Rite 
excludes all cabalistic rites and reveries, and recom- 
mends the pure Eclectic Symbolic Masonry of the 
York degrees. The prevalency of this Swedenbor- 
gian Rite amongst the highest clergy, nobles, and 
princes of Germany, Sweden, Holland, and Prussia, 
will explain one of the most important yet myste- 
rious facts in Masonic history in these countries, at 
this period. 

Oliver, in his " Historic Landmarks of Freema- 
sonry," says : 

"In 1783, circulars were issued by the Grand Lodges 
of Frankfort-on-Maine and Wetzler, announcing that 
the fraternity of those districts had returned to the 



86 STRICT OBSERVANCE. 

practice of pure Eclectic Masonry, as it was promul- 
gated under the sanction of the Grand Lodge of Eng- 
land ; thus excluding the cabalistic reveries of Gugo- 
mos, Scroeder, Stark, and Cagliostro. And in the same 
year, 1783, the Grand Lodge of the Three Globes at 
Berlin came to the resolution of excluding all the breth- 
ren from their assemblies who had embraced Illumin- 
ism." — Yol. iii., p. 18. 

About 1768-1769 a new candidate for Masonic 
favor appeared in the person of Count Zinnendorf. 
He had been initiated in the Swedenborgian Eite in 
the Lodge at Stockholm, and also into the Chapter 
degrees. The Master of Stockholm Chapter, Yon 
EcklefT, furnished him with a written statement of 
the Swedish system, without the consent of the 
Grand Lodge. By its means, he introduced a sys- 
tem of Masonry, fabricated from the Swedenborgian 
Rite, blended with the Scotch and Swedish Tem- 
plary, and St. John's German Masonry. An adept, 
whose name was Wilhermotts, initiated into this 
system Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, about the 
close of 1770 ; and in the following year, 1771, his 
brother, the reigning Duke, Charles of Hesse, was 
likewise initiated. The Zinnendorf system was really 
designed as an Order of Templars. It had been 
established a few years when Baron Hund made his 



DUKE CHARLES OF HESSE-DARMSTADT. 87 

appearance in the Order, and proposed a union of 
their systems. 

Prince Charles of Hesse, whose letter acknowl- 
edging himself a member of the Swedenborgian 
"Exegetical" Society, at Stockholm, we have just 
given, was one of the most important officers of 
this Order of the Strict Observance, or so-called 
Order of Templars. In May, 1772, a general 
convention was held at Kohlo, on the estate of 
Count Bruhl, in the County of Pfordten, at which 
the clerical branch was represented. Von Hund, 
by request, presented his patent, which, although 
no one was able to decipher, was pronounced gen- 
uine. The Clerical Branch was now acknowledged 
by an act of union, signed on either part, and Duke 
Ferdinand was chosen Magnus Superior Ordinis, 
and Grand Master of all the United Scottish Lodges. 
The Ritual of the first four degrees, as practised in 
the United Lodges, was adopted. Baron Hund's 
party professed to belong to another branch of the 
Templar Order — viz., the clerical or ecclesiastical 
branch, who alone possessed the true secrets of the 
Order, and that they were invested with full power 
to take charge of the secular branch. They pro- 
fessed to be descendants of the pious Essenes. But 
at this date, from 1765-1767, no trace of this cleri- 



88 STRICT OBSERVANCE. 

cal branch of the Strict Observance existed in either 
Germany or Sweden. Dr. Stark appeared with a 
patent in 1767, and Baron Hund in 1772, as repre- 
sentatives of this branch of the Order; whilst the 
secular branch appeared in 1765 in a general form, 
when the Provincial Grand Lodge of Hamburg went 
over to the Strict Observance. 

At the union in 1772, a Directory, under the title 
of a Capitular or Chapter Government, was estab- 
lished at Dresden. The Order was distributed into 
Provinces, thus : — 1, Aragon ; 2, Auvergne ; 3, Lan- 
guedoc ; 4, Lyons ; 5, Burgundy ; 6, Lower Saxony, 
Prussian Poland, Livonia, and Courland ; 7, Italy, 
Sicily, Greece, and the Archipelago ; 8, Southern 
Germany. All acknowledged Duke Ferdinand as 
Grand Master. 

In 1775, a Convention was held at Brunswick, at 
which Prince Charles of Hesse was acknowledged 
Protector Ordinis, and the Directory or Capitular Gov- 
ernment was taken from Dresden to Brunswick for 
three years. All the papers, correspondence, Bolls 
and Registers of the order were, at the death of the 
Duke Ferdinand, transferred to the Landgrave, 
Chaeles of Hesse, and are at present preserved in 
the archives of the Grand Lodge of Denmark, at 
Copenhagen. It will thus be seen that the supreme 



DUKE CHARLES OF HESSE-DARMSTADT. 89 

head of the Order of Strict Observance, was known 
to be an avowed Swedenborgian, and in 1790, of his 
free motion, he sent a letter to the members of the 
Swedenborgian " Exegetical and Philanthropical So- 
ciety" at Stockholm, openly avowing himself a mem- 
ber and brother of the society — the original letter 
being now in the archives of the society, or of the 
societary organization which has succeeded it, and 
is now in existence. 

An alliance took place, in 1781, between the Grand 
Lodge of Holland and the Bite of Strict Observance. 
Negotiations to this end were commenced in 1779 
by Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, Egnes a Victoria, 
as head of the Strict Observance, and Prince Fred- 
erick of Hesse-Cassel, Egnes a Septem Sagittes, who 
was initiated at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Dec. 28th, 
1777. The treaty of union was formed March 18- 
20th, 1781, and signed by both princes. 

The new system, instituted at the celebrated Con- 
vention of Wilhehnsbad, July and Sept., 1782, under 
the presidency of Duke Ferdinand, consisted of six 
degrees — viz., 1, 2, 3, the usual symbolic degrees ; 4, 
the Scottish Blaster ; 5, the Esquire or Novice • and 
6, the Benevolent Knight of the Holy City. It was 
planned after the model of the Swedenborgian Rite. 
Duke Ferdinand was now acknowledged the supreme 



90 STRICT OBSERVANCE. 

head of the Order, under the title of General Grand 
Master. The Landgrave, Charles of Hesse, was 
selected as his successor and Heermeister of the first 
province. In France, this new system was known 
as the Bectified Bite or System. It will thus be 
evident that the Swedenborgian Bite — which was 
never worked openly, except with avowed Sweden- 
borgians — and the new symbolic system and doctrines 
of Swedenborg, influenced the very fountain-heads 
of the high orders of Freemasonry in Germany, Hol- 
land, Sweden, and Denmark, and the French Prov- 
inces, where Prince Charles of Hesse was at the 
supreme head of the Order of Strict Observance, 
or Rectified Bite ; and Prince Charles, the Duke of 
Sudermania, with King Gustavus III., at the su- 
preme head of the Sublime and Ineffable degrees. 

Can we wonder, then, that Swedenborg should be 
regarded in the north of Europe as one of the most 
eminent reformers of Masonry, both in the higher 
and lower degrees? Can we wonder that for so 
long a time, Swedenborg has, in some unknown and 
mysterious way, been mythically connected with the 
incessant changes in degrees already established, 
and at the bottom of all the new orders of Masonry 
which sprung up in the north and west of Europe, 
and which owned the jurisdiction of princes who 



DUKE CHARLES OF HESSE-DAEMSTADT. 91 

were avoiced Swederiborgians ? Let it be acknowl- 
edged, however, that most of what is beautiful, true, 
and perfect in the symbolic Masonry of these new 
degrees — all that is worth knowing, and which made 
them desirable — was taken from the beautiful sym- 
bolic system of Emanuel Swedenborg. 

King Frederick of Prussia, intrenched amid his 
well-disciplined armies, had allowed contempt for 
established institutions, and particularly for religion, 
to be freely propagated in his dominions ; and by 
his assiduous cultivation of the friendship of Vol- 
taire, and the favor shown by him to literary men 
in general, he had given a new tone to popular 
opinion. The German princes had become initiated 
into the mysteries of Freemasonry, esteeming it the 
highest honor to be associated with the literati, and 
seeing nothing in Masonry but a few general prin- 
ciples of virtue and philanthropy, without any direct 
application to politics or societary science. But at 
the head of all these German princes was Prince 
Charles, Duke of Sudermania, an avowed Sweden- 
borgian, who was the Grand Commander of the 
Sublime and Ineffable Degrees of Masonry, and 
Supreme Head of the Chapter Degrees. And also 
Prince Charles of Hesse, who was at the head of the 
Rectified Rite of Strict Observance, and Grand Gen- 



92 STRICT OBSERVANCE. 

eralissimo of Knights Templars and appendent 
Orders. Had it not been for these two Sweden- 
borgian princes, the Masonic world wonld have 
been overrun by spurious degrees a thousandfold 
more than it has been; they concentrated, com- 
bined, and reunited the scattered elements of pow- 
er, and did more than all the German princes to- 
gether to keep the Lodges and Chapters pure and 
free from political and secret organizations. The 
Swedenborgian Masons, w r ith these two princes at 
their head, were the open and avowed enemies of 
Illuminism, in its political and most objectionable 
form. And when it was- likely that Illuminism would 
prevail, they induced King Frederick to discoun- 
tenance all the higher degrees and return to the 
three symbolic degrees, until the revolutionary spirit, 
which was then dominant everywhere, had subsided. 
Otherwise pure symbolic Masonry w r ould have been 
literally destroyed. This advice resulted in the 
treaty of Nov. 30, 1773, between the English and 
German Grand Lodges. 



VI. 

SCOTTISH EITE. 

King Gustavus III., of Sweden. 

The king's brother, Duke of Sudermania (after- 
ward Charles XIII.), was Grand Commander of the 
Scottish Rite, and therefore entitled by rank to pre- 
side at all Assemblies, Councils, Chapters, and Con- 
ventionSj, in the absence of Frederick the Great of 
Prussia, who was the Sovereign Grand Inspector 
General and Grand Commander. 

The Christianstad Chapter has in its possession 
an old Book of Records, which contains, amongst 
other things, the Minutes of a Grand Council or 
Grand Convention held at "Wittshofle, June 5th, 
1787. The king and his brother were present, and 
Duke Charles, as Grand Commander, presided at 
the Council. Brethren were present from Stock- 
holm and other parts of Sweden, and from the Swe- 
dish province of Pomerania — from Greifswalde and 
Stralsund, two adjacent towns near Bugen Island in 
the Baltic. The old record gives the names of the 



94 SCOTTISH KITE. 

ritual officers, in the usual Masonic form. The 
recording secretary had his minutes well classified 
and clearly but tersely expressed. During the Con- 
vention, Lieuteuant-Colonel and Knight, Baltzar 
Wedemar, delivered a Lecture on Freemasonry, 
which met with the approval of all present. In 
alluding to the past history of the Order, he paid a 
tribute to the high worth of Swedenborg as a mem- 
ber of the high degrees. He referred to the scien- 
tific and theological writings of the Assessor, and 
their effect upon Masonry in general. The higher 
degrees, including Sublime and Ineffable Masonry 
and Templar degrees, had undergone some modifi- 
cations, which were due mainly to the Swedenbor- 
gian system of symbolism which had imprinted upon 
Swedish Masonry a particular character, which it 
would always retain. Swedenborg was in fact one 
of the most eminent Masons of the first half of the 
eighteenth century. 

He spoke of the Assessor's visit to Charles XII., 
at Altenstedt, with a view to secure the royal sanc- 
tion to a plan for introducing into Sweden the 
higher degrees of Masonry. Swedenborg had joined 
a Lodge of the Scottish Eite in Lunden, or Lund as 
it is more generally called, and was therefore a 
member of their Order in 1706. Lieutenant-Colonel 



KING GUSTAVUS III., OF SWEDEN. 95 

Wedemar, the lecturer, had himself visited this 
Lodge in Lunden, and the signature of his name, 
which he must have given when he signed the Con- 
stitution and By-laws of the Lodge, is in the Lodge 
Register. 

After the lecture was closed, King Gustavus III. 
pronounced his high opinion of the Assessor, and 
from their intimacy and personal association, both 
he and his royal brother could vouch for the fact, 
that Swedenborg had been a member of their Order. 
The Grand Commander, presiding at the Council, 
and hereditary prince of Sweden, also expressed 
his knowledge of the same fact from personal inti- 
macy with the Assessor. Several of the members, 
also, added their personal testimony. 

The united testimony of these speakers is con- 
firmed by the German work " Latona" published in 
Leipsic, which contains an article with full particu- 
lars of Swedenborg's reception into the Order, 
which are based on verbal statements furnished 
by Swedenborg himself. The order here spoken of 
is what we now understand as the Scottish Rite, or 
the Sublime and Ineffable Degrees. I have already 
explained, in the first pages of this Essay, that the 
Lunden here named is the capital of the extreme 
southern province of Sweden, and is spelled Lund 



96 SCOTTISH RITE. 

in all modern geographies. The person who first 
obtained this information was a Frenchman, Abbe 
Pernetti, royal librarian to the King of Prussia, 
and he has undoubtedly converted Lund into Lun- 
den, as was the French usage in his day. 

King Gustavus III. is the same monarch who 
issued a royal order in 1770, prohibiting all books 
from being introduced into Sweden, containing erro- 
neous doctrines, including those of Assessor Swe- 
denborg. But the Masonic friends of the Assessor 
were all-powerful at Court ; they were Senators and 
Counts of the realm — Count Hopken, Count Bonde, 
Count de Ekeblad, Count de Tessen, Count de 
Bjelke, and Count Scheffer. The hereditary prince 
of Sweden, Duke of Sudermania, was the king's 
brother, and Grand Commander of the Scottish 
Bite, of which Order Swedenborg was a member. 
He was also a Swedenborgian, and a devoted friend 
to the Assessor, as we shall prove presently. They 
at once pressed the monarch into the Masonic fra- 
ternity, and his royal order never afterward took 
effect in relation to Swedenborg. The Assessor 
also addressed a letter to the king, which has been 
preserved : but after the initiation of the king, the 
Assessor's enemies, who were all members of the 
clergy, never dared to put their infernal plot into 



KING GUSTATUS III., OF SWEDEN. 97 

practice — which was, to arrest the Assessor and im- 
prison him on the plea of madness. Drs. Beyer and 
Rosen, Professors and members of the Ecclesiastical 
Consistory of Gottenburg — two of Swedenborg's in- 
timate friends, and open advocates of his religious 
and symbolic system — were threatened expulsion 
from the kingdom. The king ordered Dr. Beyer to 
send an explicit exposition of his belief to the Senate, 
and promised him a full and impartial hearing. It was 
only a method of protecting him, and of expressing 
the royal determination to see that justice should rule 
in the Senate. The king sent letters to the Consis- 
tories of the kingdom, as he had been urged to do 
by Swedenborg in his letter to the king, to bring the 
persecution and complaints to an end. It had the 
desired effect — the violence ended. The king hav- 
ing met Swedenborg, said to him : " The Consisto- 
ries have been silent on my letters and your writings /" 
and putting his hand familiarly on Swedenborg's 
shoulder, added, " We may conclude that they have 
found nothing reprehensible in them, and that you 
have written in conformity with the truth." This 
incident was furnished by Robsahm, Director of the 
Bank of Stockholm, who had it from Swedenborg 
himself. (Documents — Bobsahm's Testimony, 1790.) 
The revolution of 1772, effected by Gustavus III., 
5 



98 SCOTTISH RITE. 

saved Sweden from the fate of Poland. He had to fight 
over again the same class which conspired success- 
fully to take the life of Charles XII., — the oligarchy. 
They would have rendered the dismemberment of 
the one as inevitable and as fatal as that of the 
other. But Gustavus III. restored order to the 
finances — which were in such a deplorable state as 
to threaten a national bankruptcy ; put an end to 
peculation and corruption in the army and navy ; 
purified the courts of law, and made them, for the 
first time in reality as well as in name, courts of 
justice ; and introduced more efficient organization 
into the colleges and universities. In six years Swe- 
den rose to a state of unexampled prosperity. The 
arts and sciences were cultivated ; literature flour- 
ished, — for the king himself was an author of no 
mean note. Several of his operas and dramas were 
translated into French and German, and some of 
them are stock-pieces in Sweden. 

But the oligarchy was determined to have all 
power in their hands ; so they conspired to effect a 
new revolution in the name of liberty. The Swe- 
dish nobles never forgot that it was to the assassina- 
tion of Charles XII. they were indebted for their 
brief period of mischievous ascendency : by similar 
means they resolved to seek its restoration. Several 



KESG GUSTAYUS III., OF SWEDEN. 99 

nobles, including the Counts Horn and Bibbing, 
united to a number of discontented officers of the 
army, resolved to assassinate the king, and eagerly 
awaited the opportunity, as they had done with 
Charles XII. On March 16th, 1792, King Gust'avus 
took an early dinner at Haga, and came into Stock- 
holm so as to attend a masked ball at the Opera 
House. He remained some time in the private 
apartments reserved for his use ; and while giving 
audience to some of his nobles, a letter was put into 
his hands warning him of the plot that had been 
planned for his destruction at the forthcoming 
masked ball. The noble who delivered the letter of 
warning was a member of the Swedenborg Rite ; 
and he undertook the difficult task at the sugges- 
tion of the Duke of Sudermania, brother to the king, 
another Swedenborgian Mason, who had heard of 
the p]ot. The king showed the letter to Count 
D'Essen, who advised him to return to Haga, as 
the Swedenborgian Masons had suggested. From 
seven till midnight the dancing was kept up with 
spirit ; but as soon as the clock had struck twelve, 
the king, leaning on the arm of Count D'Essen, pro- 
ceeded to take a promenade through the rooms. As 
he reached the middle of one of these, by a precon- 
certed arrangement, two crowds came from oppo- 



100 SCOTTISH RITE. 

site sides of the room, hemming him round, crea- 
ting designed confusion. At the same instant 
Count Horn, also masked, pretending not to know 
the king, struck him on the shoulder, saying, " Good- 
night, fair mask." This was the signal. Ancker- 
strcem shot the king, who fell into Count D'Essen's 
arms. The plan was to kill by a secret shot, and it 
was as successful as in the assassination of Charles 
XII., but both events were foreseen, and the king, 
in each instance, was forewarned, but disregarded 
it and paid the penalty of indiscretion. In both 
cases the warning came from members of the Ma- 
sonic fraternity ; and in the last case, it came direct 
from the very man who, about twenty years after, 
succeeded the slaughtered monarch. The Duke of 
Sudermania became king of Sweden, with the title 
of Charles XIII., in the year 1809. 



VII. 

SCOTTISH KITE. 

Peince Chaeles, Duke of Sudeemania, Grand Com- 
mander of the Supreme Council. 

" In 1765," says the Inspector-General's Report, 
" the Lodges and Councils of the superior degrees, 
being extended throughout the continent of Europe, 
his Majesty the King of Prussia, as Grand Com- 
mander of the Princes of the Eoyal Secret, was ac- 
knowledged by all the craft as head of the Sublime 
and Ineffable Degrees of Masonry throughout the 
two hemispheres. His Royal Highness, Chaeles, 
hereditary Peince of Sweden, Duke or Sudeemania, 
was the Grand Commander of Sublime and Ineffable 
Masonry in Sweden." 

Swedenborg at this date, 1765-1769, was on the 
most intimate terms with the hereditary Prince of 
Sweden. On his return from Amsterdam, he speaks 
of this intimacy in a letter to Professor Beyer (Docu- 
ments — Letter to Beyer). 

"I arrived at Stockholm the beginning of this month, 
and was kindly received by all classes of people, and 



102 SCOTTISH RITE. 

instantly invited by their Royal Highnesses, the hered- 
itary Prince and his sister, with both of whom I had a 
long conversation, etc., etc. 

" Emanuel Swedenborg. 
" Stockholm, Oct, 30th, 1769." 

In a previous paragraph we alluded to the Con- 
vention of a Grand Chapter at Wittshofle, which 
took place June 5th, 1787. Only two months after, 
Prince Charles, Duke of Sudermania, who presided 
at the Chapter in Wittsliofle, and brother to the then 
reigning king, honored the Swedenborgian " Exe- 
getical and Pliilantliroioical" Society at Stockholm by 
accepting the invitation to become one of its mem- 
bers. On his first introduction to the Society, Aug. 
29, 1787, his Royal Highness delivered the following 
speech, wdiich marks the condescension of his man- 
ners, the liberality of his views, and his devotion to 
the Swedenborgian cause. We may see the reason, 
in this speech, why he had spoken so favorably of 
Swedenborg and his system, at the Convention of 
the Grand Chapter at Wittsliofle only two months 
previous. 

" Truth is simple, it is Infinite. It may be shaded, 
but it cannot be changed. And if ignorance, prejudice, 
or private views, hide its true meaning, these clouds are 



PEINCE CHAELES, DUKE OF SUDERMANIA. 103 

dissipated by an upright inquirer, who, being led by a 
superior hand, has strength enough to distinguish truth 
from falsehood 

"Having found, gentlemen, that your thoughts are 
consonant with my own, I have with pleasure accepted 
of your invitation to reckon myself one of your number. 

" I wish to assist you in the pursuit of the aim of 
your meetings. Convinced that the hand of Omnipo- 
tence protects your laudable intentions, I trust that by 
his grace you will reap the fruits of a labor consecrated 
to his glory. May he bestow his blessing for this pur- 
pose, is my ardent prayer." 

The duke was hereditary Prince of Sweden, and 
an avowed Swedenborgian, as is evident from the 
above address. He commenced his reign, as Charles 
XIII. of Sweden, in the year 1809, and in that year 
the Government underwent a radical change, when 
the liberty of the press, and of free speech even on 
religious subjects, was confirmed by a New Con- 
stitution. 

It will be noticed, that the hereditary prince be- 
came a member of the " Exegetical Society' in Aug., 
1787, and about the same month in 1787, the So- 
ciety gave birth to a secret Order which lasted only 
a few years, and which would have introduced the 
Swedenborgian Rite, had there been enough of Ma- 
sons of the higher degrees to work it. This secret 



104 SCOTTISH RITE. 

organization was under the auspices of the heredi- 
tary prince ; but it fell through, because the old 
Swedenborgian Masons, such as Count Hopken, 
were too old and infirm to attend to it. The old 
Count died about three years after the secret Order 
was instituted. The Society of "Pro Fide et Cari- 
tate' took its place. The nobility of Sweden had, 
however, been pretty well impressed with the new 
symbolic religion. In Haldanes Second Bevieiu of 
the Conduct of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 
for 1826, is the following notice : 

" The pernicious spirit of the times tending to indiffer- 
ence, skepticism, or a spurious mysticism, has of late 
too much obtained the prevalence ; and under such cir- 
cumstances, Sicedenborgianism makes rapid progress 
among cdl classes of society." 

This is said in relation to Sweden. 

The Swedenborgian Society at Christianstad has 
in its possession the following letter, written by one 
of the old members of this society of " Pro Fide et 
Caritate," who was still living in 1869, and aged 
eighty -four years. 

" So long ago as 1809 [he would then be twenty-four 
years of age], I was a member of the society ' Pro Fide 
et Caritate' in Stockholm. All who at the time believed 



PRINCE CHARLES, DUKE OF SUDERMANIA. 105 

in anything were divided into two churhces, the Mora- 
vians and the Swedenborgians. To the former belonged 
most of the mercantile and manufacturing classes ; to 
the latter (Swedenborgian) belonged the Highest Officers 
cf State and the representatives of the higher culture 
and learning. We had our meetings in the house of the 
Councillor of Commerce, Schonherr. When he removed 
from Stockholm, the meetings of the friends ceased. 
Many of those friends are still living (1861), and occupy 
some of the highest offices in the State, etc. 
" I have the honor to be, 

" A. A. Afzelius." 

The writer is Arvid August Afzelius, Dean and 
Rector of Enkoping. From this letter it may be 
seen that many of those who became members of 
the old " Pro Fide et Caritate" Society of Stock- 
holm are still living and occupying high, official po- 
sitions. And this fact will give some idea how we 
have obtained much of the information contained in 
these pages, or through whose instrumentality it has 
been obtained. 

We have already shown that in the same month, 
August, 1787, in which the hereditary prince of 
Sweden, Duke of Sudermania, became a member of 
the Swedenborgian "Exegetical Society" at Stock- 
holm, the society changed its character, and under 
his auspices gave birth to a secret Order, which 



106 SCOTTISH EITE. 

lasted several years. Some years afterward, when 
the duke became the ruling monarch, under the 
title of Charles XIII., he revived this secret Order 
of the old "Exegetical Society," and established 
it as a new Order of Knighthood ; but having in 
reality a Swedenborgian origin, both in plan and 
sentiment. 

In the Inspector-General's Eeport, already alluded 
to, we find it announced that — 



"Freemasonry in Sweden is perhaps more in the 
ascendant than in any other country. All classes, from 
the king himself to the humblest j^easant, look on the 
institution with great veneration. In no part of Europe 
is its power so great, perhaps from its being more fully 
understood. Charles XIII., formerly Duke of Suder- 
mania, before his adoption of Bernadotte, now Carl 
John the King, created an Order of Knighthood. One 
of the qualifications of the candidate was, that he must 
be a Freemason of Merit [this is only a modification of 
the qualifications of a candidate for the Swedenborgian 
Rite]. And this qualification is still most stringent. It 
happens at the present moment, that some most excellent 
Masons, not otherwise of gentle blood, but even exer- 
cising honest vocations, by virtue of their being mem- 
bers of this particular Order, take precedence at Court 
of some who, on other occasions, would look on them 
with disdain." 






PRINCE CHARLES, DUKE OF SUDERMANIA. 107 

This Order of Knighthood was instituted in the 
first year of his reign, 1809 ; and the reader may see 
from the above official document, that it was not 
confined to the aristocracy and nobility of Sweden, 
but excellent Masons exercising honest vocations 
were influential members thereof. In fact, all the 
Swedenborgian Masons of any consequence were 
members of the Order. The king remembered his 
old friends of the " Exegetical Society." 



Till. 
INEFFABLE EITE OF PEBFECTION. 

Cardinal Prince de Eohan. 

" In 1765," says the Inspector-General's Beport, 
" the Lodges and Councils of the superior degrees 
being extended throughout the continent of Europe, 
his Majesty, the King of Prussia, as Grand Com- 
mander of Princes of the Royal Secret, was acknowl- 
edged by all the craft as the head of the Sublime 
and Ineffable Degrees of Masonry throughout the 
two hemispheres ; his Eoyal Highness Charles, 
hereditary Prince of Sweden, Duke of Sudermania, 
was the Grand Commander of Sublime Masonry in 
Sweden ; and his Eoyal Highness, Louis of Bour- 
bon, and the Cardinal Prince de Eohan, were at 
the head of those degrees in France." 

The intimacy existing between Swedenborg and 
the hereditary Prince Charles of Sweden, and the 
high opinion which the latter entertained of the 
Swedenborgian system and Eite, would no doubt 
lead the prince, in his correspondence with the 






CARDINAL PRINCE DE ROHAN. 109 

chiefs of Sublime Masonry in France, to recommend 
the writings of Swedenborg to their attention, espe- 
cially as Swedenborg was an eminent member of the 
Scottish Kite. We have been unable to discover 
whether such was the case or not ; but, at the sug- 
gestion of Prince Charles, Swedenborg sent in 1766 
— the year following the date given above — two 
copies of his recently published work, Apocalypsis 
Revdata, to Cardinal Prince de Rohan, which were 
given to him by his Excellency the Swedish Am- 
bassador at Paris, to whose care they were con- 
signed. The cardinal was one of the signers to that 
patent document which was given to Resp.*. Bro.\ 
Stephen Morin, which made him the Inspector- 
General of all the Lodges, Chapters, Councils, and 
Grand Councils, etc., etc., in all parts of the New 
World. 

When, therefore, three years after, in 1769, the 
illustrious Swede entered Paris, the cardinal paid 
him a visit. When M. Parraud — the translator and 
editor of Swedenborg's True Christian Religion, pub- 
lished at Paris in 1802 — appealed to M. Chevreuil, 
royal censor of the press in 1769, to know why 
Swedenborg had so suddenly returned home, and 
how far the report was true which alleged that he 
had been ordered to quit Paris by the authorities — 



110 INEFFABLE RITE OF PERFECTION. 

lie attested, that Cardinal de Rohan made his pres- 
ence known to the Masonic chiefs, who visited Swe- 
denborg and offered him the leadership of all the 
French Lodges connected with the Ineffable Rite, 
without the privity of Cardinal Prince de Rohan. 
But the affair soon got noised about ; Cardinal de 
Rohan was opposed to the movement, and this led 
to one of the government officials paying a visit to 
the residence of the Swedish Assessor, which prob- 
ably decided the latter to make a hasty return home. 
The organization submitted to him was what a 
few months afterward became the Grand Orient, 
and the most powerful combination in the Scottish 
Rite. We are unable to say how far the cardinal 
became a receiver of the Sweclenborgian system. 
But Count Cagliostro, who visited the Sweclenbor- 
gian Society in London in 1786, and spent several 
months amongst them, attested that Cardinal de 
Rohan approved the Swedenborgian system (see 
Article XVII.) ; and this approval had led him to 
urge upon the Royal Grand Lodge of Hereclom of 
Kilwinning, the establishment of a Grand Chapter 
of the Order at Rouen, and to appoint Bro.\ Ma- 
theus the Provincial Grand Master for the whole of 
France, because he was a high Mason, and a leader 
of a small band of loyal Swedenborgian Masons in 



CARDINAL PRINCE DE ROHAN. Ill 

Rouen ; which appointment had just been com- 
pleted when he (Count Cagliostro — or rather Count 
Sutkowski) had left France. That Cardinal de Ro- 
han and he had some words in relation to the appoint- 
ment, because he wished the cardinal to obtain the 
appointment for his society of Avignon . But the 
cardinal urged the necessity of the case ; something 
had to be done at once, since the Grand Orient had, 
on February 17, 1786, procured a union with itself 
of the Grand Chapter created by Gerbier's patent, 
and the General Grand Chapter of France. The 
Royal Grand Lodge must act at once, and could not 
wait the pleasure of the count and his friends, who 
were absent from Avignon. So the appointment 
was procured for the Swedenborgian Masons of 
Rouen, who were known to be true to the Royal 
Grand Lodge. 



IX. 

SWEDENBORGIAN KITE. 

Count Andrew John Yon Hopken. 

This nobleman was one of the institutors of the 
Sweclenborgian Lodge in Stockholm. He was also 
one of the originators of the Swedish Royal Acad- 
emy of Sciences at Stockholm, and served as its 
secretary for a considerable time. He was a Sena- 
tor of the House of Xobles, and for many years was 
Prime Minister of Sweden. As the leading Senator, 
he was the second person in the realm. He was an 
intimate and fast friend of Swedenborg for about 
twenty years, but had known him forty-two years, 
up to the year 1772, when the latter died. He was 
an eminent Mason in the Chapter and Templar 
degrees ; and his position enabled him to give 
countenance and faror to the Swedenborgian Rite, 
and extend it among the nobility. Through his 
influence and recommendation, almost the entire 
body of members in the Royal Academy of Sciences 
became members of the Swedenborgian Order, 



COUNT ANDKEW JOHN VON HOPKEN. 113 

whilst all the respectable and worthy members of 
the nobility and aristocracy of Sweden, Denmark, 
Holland, Prussia, and Germany belonged to the 
Order, or were advocates of the Swedenborgian 
system. Count Hopken's high estimate of the 
system is well expressed in the following letters to 
General Christian Tuxen, Commissioner of War to 
the King of Denmark, at Elsineur. He died March 
9, 1790 ; and copies of the original letters were fur- 
nished by General Tuxen to the New Jerusalem 
Magazine, and published in 1790-1791. 



Letter I. 
Senator Count Hopken to General Tuxen. 

" Sir : — My stay in the country, at a distance from 
the capital and the great world, is the cause of my 
answering later than 1 ought the letter of April 21st, 
with which you have honored me. The office with 
which I was invested in my country, has often made it 
my duty to give my opinion and counsel in delicate and 
difficult matters; but I do not recollect any one so 
delicate ever to have been submitted to my judgment, 
as that which you have been pleased to propose to me. 
Such sentiments and persuasions as one person may 
entertain, do not always suit others; and what may 
appear to me probable, manifest, certain, and incontest- 



114 SWEDENBOEG KITE. 

able, may to others seem dark, incomprehensible, nay, 
even absurd. Partly natural organization, partly edu- 
cation, partly professional studies, partly prejudices, 
partly fear of abandoning received opinions, and other 
causes, occasion a difference of ideas in men. To unite 
and settle them in temporal concerns is not hazardous ; 
but in spiritual matters, when a tender conscience is to 
be satisfied, I have not the spirit requisite for this, and 
I am also bound to confess my want of knowledge. All 
I could say by way of preliminary on this subject, re- 
gards the person of the late Assessor Swedenborg. I 
have not only known him these two-and-forty years, 
but also, some time since, daily frequented his company. 
A man who, like me, has lived long in the world, and 
even in an extensive career of life, must have had 
numerous opportunities of knowing men as to their 
virtues or vices, their weakness or strength; and in 
consequence thereof, I do not recollect to have known 
any man of more uniformly virtuous character than 
Sw T edenborg : always contented, never fretful or morose, 
although throughout his life his soul was occupied with 
sublime thoughts and speculations. He was a true 
philosopher, and lived like one : he labored diligently, 
and lived frugally without sordidness : he travelled 
continually, and his travels cost him no more than if 
he had lived at home. He w r as gifted with a most 
happy genius ; and a fitness for every science, wdiich 
made him shine in all those which he embraced. He 
was, without contradiction, the most learned man in 
my country 



COUNT ANDREW JOHN YON HOPKEN. 115 

" This I have written with a view of satisfying, in some 
manner, your desire, and thus of proving the perfect 
esteem with which I have the honor to be, sir, your 
obedient servant, 

" HoPKEN. 

" Schennikge, May 11th, 1772. 

" P. S. Your epitaph on Swedenborg is very beauti- 
ful, true, and worthy of the subject." 



Letter II. 
Count HopTzen to General Tuxen. 

"Sir: — From your long silence, I concluded you 
had not been satisfied with my last, containing my 
opinion on the late Assessor Swedenborg's System of 
Divinity ; and from your letter of March 8th, I per- 
ceive I had some cause for my suspicions 

" I agree with you, sir, in this : that the Swedenbor- 
gian system is more comprehensible to our reason, and 
less complicate than other systems ; and while it forms 
virtuous men and citizens, it prevents, at the same time, 
all kinds of enthusiasm and superstition, both of which 
occasion so many and so cruel vexations, or ridiculous 
singularities, in the world; and from the present state 
of religion (more or less everywhere conspicuous, 
according to the more or less free form of government), 
I am perfectly convinced that the interpolations which 
men have confusedly inserted into religion, have nearly 
effected a total corruption or revolution ; and when this 



116 SWEDENBOKG KITE. 

is seen, the Swedenborgian system will become more 
general, more agreeable, and more intelligible than at 
present — opiniorum commenta delet dies, naturae judicia 
confirmed, says Cicero. The work of God is in its com- 
position simple, and in its duration perpetual: on the 
contrary, the contrivances of man are complicate, and 
have no lasting subsistence. Those few truths which 
we possess, and perhaps want in this world, are equally 
intelligible to the most simple as to the most profound 
metaphysician. Tenets and arguments have troubled 
mortals more than convinced them; excited more, 
religious quarrels and wars in Christendom, than they 

have made good Christians 

" Your correspondence, sir, is not only very agreeable 
to me, but also very edifying. I wish my answer may 
afford you equal satisfaction : at least, I can assure you 
of the sincere affection with which I have the honor of 
remaining, sir, your obedient servant, 



Hopkex. 



Schex^en-ge, May 21st, 1773.' 



Letter III. 

Count Hopken to General Tuxen. 

" Sir : — Partly travels, and partly indisposition, have 
prevented my answering your favor of the 28th May; 
besides, the contents of that letter are such as to re- 
quire much time for reflection, much attention, and 
still greater caution in the execution, than questions of 
another nature in general demand 



COUNT ANDREW JOHN VON HoPKEN. 117 

" I am no theologian ; but I do not build my religion 
on that artificial and confused theology which ambi- 
tion, enthusiasm, and superstition have spun out, which 
gives rise to sects, and excites in weak minds anxiety 
and despair. If we look round us in Christendom, we 
shall find the state of religion to be such as I have 
described, and that there is no other cause for it. — I 
have the honor to remain, with particular esteem, sir, 

your obedient servant, 

" Hopken. 
" Schenjstun'ge-Ulfosa, Aug. 1st, 1773." 

Letter IV. 
Count Hopken to General Tuxen. 

" Sie : — I have had the honor of receiving your 
letter dated Elsineur, June 16th. But I am very sorry 
that I could only enjoy an hour of the edifying and 
learned conversation of Dr. Bastholm, and that I could 
not show him more attention and civility, as he was to 
continue his journey the next day through Upsal, with- 
out returning to Stockholm 

"The sentence said to have been pronounced on Swe- 
denborg by a committee during the Diet, which you 
request of me, has not reached my knowledge, and proba- 
bly does not exist in the manner of approbation. The 
matter began at Gottenburg, particularly against the late 
Dr. Beyer, and was continued here by the chancellor of 
justice, but came to nothing; for neither the accuser 



118 SWEDENBOKG BITE. 

nor the judges understood Swedenborg, and had no 

lights or capacity to judge of such matters 

" I have the honor to be, with most perfect esteem, 

sir, your obedient servant, 

"Hopken. 
" Stockholm, July 6th, 1781." 

" The above letters are faithful copies from the origi- 
nals in my hands. u 

" C. Tuxek." 

Opinion of Count Hophen respecting the writings of 
Swedenborg, in a letter to another friend. 

"Dear Sir: — The present religion is mystical and 
filled with paradoxes : it is as incoherent and unreason- 
able as if formed for cattle, and not for rational men : 
agreeably to its prevailing tenets, you may perpetuate 
any villainies, and yet be saved. The doctrine of the 
priests is Polytheism. They assert that One is the 
creator of the world, and another the author of religion : 
they make all to depend upon faith and momentary 
salvation. But the doctrine of Swedenborg is the most 
rational of all Christian doctrines, and urges as its first 
object, to be of good and honest principles. There are 
two circumstances in the doctrine and writings of Swe- 
denborg. The first is his Memorable Relations ; of these 
I cannot judge, not having had any spiritual intercourse 
myself, by which to judge of his assertions, either to 
affirm or contradict them, but they cannot appear more 
extraordinary than the Apocalypse of John, and other 
similar relations contained in the Bible. The second is 



COUNT ANDEEW JOHN YON HoPKEN. 119 

his Tenets of Doctrine / of these I can judge : they are 
excellent, irrefutable, and the best that ever were 
taught, promoting the happiest social life. I know 
that Swedenborg has related his memorabilia bond 

fide 

"I have sometimes told the king, that if ever a new 
colony were to be formed, no religion could be better, 
as the prevailing and established one, than that devel- 
oped by Swedenborg from the sacred Scriptures ; and 
this on the two following accounts. 1st. This religion in 
preference to, and in a higher degree than any other, 
must produce the most honest and industrious subjects ; 
for this religion places properly the worship of God in 
uses. 2dly. It causes the least fear of death, as this 
religion regards death merely as a transition from one 
state into another ; from a worse to a better situation ; 
nay, upon his principles, I look upon death as being 
of hardly any greater moment than drinking a glass 
of water. I have been convinced of the truth of Swe- 
denborg's doctrine from these arguments in particular, 
viz, : That One is the author of everything, and not a 
separate person the Creator, and another the Author 
of religion ; that there are degrees in everything, and 
these subsisting to eternity : the history of creation is 
unaccountable, unless explained in the spiritual sense. 
We may say of the religion which Swedenborg has de- 
veloped in his writings from the Word of God, with 
Gamaliel : ; If it be of God, it cannot be overthroion ; 
but if it be of man, it will come to naught? 

" Hopken." 



X. 

SWEDENBORGIAN RITE. 

C. F. and Aug. Nobdenskjold. 

These gentlemen belonged to the Lodge at Stock- 
holm. Abbe Pernetti appealed to them to know 
something of Swedenborg's public and private his- 
tory, and procure some of his works. Mr. C. F. 
Nordenskjold, with a few others, established a so- 
ciety in Stockholm called the " Exegetical and Phi- 
lanthropical Society." It existed but a short time, 
from 1785-1787. Oliver, in his " Historical Land- 
marks," mentions it, by mistake, as a secret society 
of the Illuminati founded by Swedenborgian Ma- 
sons. In 1787 it was merged into a secret Order 
for the spread of Swedenborgianism, of which Prince 
Charles, afterward Charles XIII., was an avowed 
member. It began its existence, August, 1787, the 
same month in which the prince joined it, and it 
continued under his auspices as a secret Order, for 
the purpose named. Many prominent men in Swe- 
den belonged to it ; and several of Swedenborg's 



C. F. AND AUG. NORDENSKJOLD. 121 

works were published by it. When it began to de- 
cline, in 1796, another was established, called " Pro 
Fide et Caritate" which did not go into operation in 
a public form until 1798, and lived till about 1822, 
or thereabout. 

The MS. journal of this third society contains a 
Life of Swedenborg, written by members from oral 
statements made by persons acquainted with Swe- 
denborg. Nordenskjold was a member of the Royal 
Academy of Sciences at Stockholm ; and his name 
is connected with the organization of the first Swe- 
denborgian Society in London, for publishing the 
writings of Swedenborg. He was the party who 
obtained the loan of original MSS. from the Acad- 
emy, and became responsible for their safe return. 

Amongst the members of this "Exegetical So- 
ciety" we find the eminent ship-constructor, Admiral 
Chapman, Knight of the Order of the Sivord. 



XI. 

SCOTTISH EITE. 

M. Matheus. 

He was an eminent merchant of Rouen, and the 
leader of a small Swedenborgian Society. The 
members met together for several years without any 
attempt to organize. In the year 1790, they formed 
into a society under the name of " Societe des Amis 
de la Paix" or the Society of the Friends of Peace. 
The seal of the society bears an olive-branch across 
a sword, with a motto around it which reads — " Si 
vous aimer la paix, soyez toujours armes /' which is 
equivalent to the old adage, "If you would have 
peace, prepare for war." This Swedenborgian So- 
ciety was strictly Masonic also, and was composed 
of some of the chief members of the National Guard 
of Rouen, and several members of the principal cities 
in France, especially Paris. 

On the first of May, 1786, the Royal Grand Lodge 
of Heredom, of Kilwinning, established a Grand 
Chapter of the Order of Heredom at Kouen. Bro.'. 



M. MATHEUS. 123 

JIatJieus was appointed Provisional Grand Master 
for the whole of France. And on the fourth of Oc- 
tober, the same Grand Lodge established a Chapter 
of Heredom at Paris, in favor of Nicolas ChdbouiUet, 
of the Chapter du clwix at Paris. (Thoey, 1 Acta 
Lat. 169.) The appointment of Matheus, being for 
the whole of France, conferred upon him full powers 
to grant Charters, etc., etc. It was given to Ma- 
theus and friends at Rouen, at the suggestion of 
Cardinal Prince de Kohan, head of the Sublime and 
Ineffable Degrees in France, who urged the ap- 
pointment because the Swedenborgian Masons were 
known to be loyal to the Royal Grand Lodge, and 
because the cardinal approved of the Swedenbor- 
gian sj T stem — see Article VIII. 

The Chapter at Paris was connected with the 
Bite Ecossais, and consisted exclusively of members 
of that association ; but we have been unable to dis- 
cover whether any of its members were Swedenbor- 
gian s or not. 

In the Chapter at Rouen, nearly all were Sweden- 
borgians ; it was begun by them, conducted by them, 
and all the wealth, energy, and management were 
with them almost exclusively. They applied several 
times to Berlin, Sweden, and England, to obtain the 
Swedenborgian Kite ; but failed to obtain it, because 



124 SCOTTISH RITE. 

the only members of their body who could afford 
time to go and learn it, were members of the Na- 
tional Guard, and they could not obtain leave of 
absence from their duties. 

Their correspondence with Eobert Hindmarsh, 
leader of the London Swedenborgian Society, has 
unfortunately been lost. But in his "Rise and 
Progress of the New Church," he says : 

"In the year 1790, several wealthy and zealous indi- 
viduals, readers of the Writings of Emanuel Sweden- 
borg, at Rouex, formed themselves into a society under 
the name of l Societe des Amis de la JPaixS They have 
it in contemplation to publish all Swedenhorg's Works, 
both theological and scientific." 

He then describes the seal of the society, as we 
have given it above, and concludes as follows : 

" This society is formed of the chief of the National 
Guard of Rouen, and several of the members belonging 
to the principal cities of France :" p. 116. 



XII. 
SWEDENBORGIAN EITE. 

Counsellor S. Sandel. 

Superintendent of the Koyal Board of Mines, 
Member of the Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, 
and Knight of the Order of the Polar Star. He be- 
longed to the Swedenborgian Lodge at Stockholm. 
He was selected to pronounce the Eulogium on 
Swedenborg, Oct. 7th, 1772. It was delivered in 
the name of the Royal Academy of Sciences, in the 
great hall of the House of Nobles, one of the high- 
est and most important assemblies in the realm. 
This man was one of the most influential Masons, 
and a member of all the high orders of Masonry in 
Sweden and Germany. His Eulogium is too lengthy 
for our purpose ; but his opening ivords display his 
spirit and relations to the subject of his address. 
He says : 

" Gentlemen : — Permit me to entertain you this day, 
not on a subject which, being of a foreign nature, might 
possibly be uninteresting and fatigue your attention, 



126 SWEDENBOKGIAN KITE. 

but on a man illustrious for his virtues, and celebrated 
by his universal knowledge ; who was well known and 
greatly beloved by you; and in short, on one of the 
most ancient members of this Academy. The regard 
that we formerly had for this great man, and the love 
which w T e bore toward him, assures me both of the pleas- 
ure and satisfaction that you will find in hearing him 
spoken of; and I shall esteem myself happy, if I so far 
fulfil that part of the desire you possess, as to recall to 
your minds in a suitable manner a man whom you have 
so tender a regard for, and who is worthy of so glorious 
a memory." 



XIII. 
ILLUMINISM. 

Benedict Chastanler, M. A. 

(Called Chastannier by Oliver in his Historical Landmarks of Freemasonry.) 

During the lifetime of Swedenborg, Chastanier 
and a few admirers of the new religious system of 
symbolism, founded in France a Masonic secret 
order called the Illuminees, with seven grades. The 
society tried the same plan as had been successfully 
adopted in Sweden, by forming a Masonic Lodge 
in the spirit of the new symbolic system. He evi- 
dently corresponded with the Swedenborgians in 
Stockholm while in France, for a number of letters, 
written from Paris, are still kept with the old 
records of the "Exegetical and Philanthropical 
Society" of Stockholm. The letters are directed to 
Mr. Chr. Johansen, a former member of that society. 

He lived in London for upwards of forty years, 
and was distinguished for his zeal in the propaga- 
tion of the religious system of Swedenborg. He 
was actively engaged in the organization of the 



126 SWEDENBORGIAN RITE. 

but on a man illustrious for his virtues, and celebrated 
by his universal knowledge ; who was well known and 
greatly beloved by you; and in short, on one of the 
most ancient members of this Academy. The regard 
that we formerly had for this great man, and the love 
which we bore toward him, assures me both of the pleas- 
ure and satisfaction that you will find in hearing him 
spoken of; and I shall esteem myself happy, if I so far 
fulfil that part of the desire you possess, as to recall to 
your minds in a suitable manner a man whom you have 
so tender a regard for, and who is worthy of so glorious 
a memory." 



XIII. 
ILLTJMINISM. 

Benedict Chastaneeb, M. A. 

(Called Chastannier by Oliver in his Historical Landmarks of Freemasonry.) 

During the lifetime of Swedenborg, Chastanier 
and a few admirers of the new religious system of 
symbolism, founded in France a Masonic secret 
order called the Illuminees, with seven grades. The 
society tried the same plan as had been successfully 
adopted in Sweden, by forming a Masonic Lodge 
in the spirit of the new symbolic system. He evi- 
dently corresponded with the Swedenborgians in 
Stockholm while in France, for a number of letters, 
written from Paris, are still kept with the old 
records of the "Exegetical and Philanthropical 
Society" of Stockholm. The letters are directed to 
Mr. Chr. Johansen, a former member of that society. 

He lived in London for upwards of forty years, 
and was distinguished for his zeal in the propaga- 
tion of the religious system of Swedenborg. He 
was actively engaged in the organization of the 



128 ILLUMINISM. 

first society of the New Church in London, and was 
one of its baptized members. He had more to do 
with the organization of the London Swedenbor- 
gian Printing and Publishing Society than any 
other man. He made an effort, as Oliyer, in his 
" Historical Landmarks," very truthfully records, to 
introduce a spurious and extended form of Sweden- 
borgian degrees into English Lodges, but failed. 
He carried it into a few, but I have been unable to 
trace their names, or the extent of their adoption. 
It certainly was unimportant and limited. His 
system consisted of seven degrees, combining the 
sublime Scotch degree, called the Celestial Jerusa- 
lem, with the six Swedenborgian degrees perfectly 
mutilated. 1. Apprenti Theosoph (apprentice) ; 2. 
Compagnon Theosoph (journeyman or fellow-craft) ; 
3. Maitre Theosoph (master) ; 4. Theosoph Illumine 
(enlightened brother) ; 5. Frere bleu (blue brother) ; 
6. Frere rouge (red brother) ; 7. Ecossais ou le 
Jerusalem Celeste (Sublime Scotch, or Celestial 
Jerusalem). 

When he attempted to introduce his system into 
English Lodges, he issued a call to the Freemasons, 
that as friends of symbolic truth they should join 
the professors of the symbolic doctrines of the New 
Jerusalem, and work with them in one common 



BENEDICT CHASTANIEE, M. A. 129 

cause. This call may be found in his " Plan oVun 
Journal Novo Jerusalemite." It should be remem- 
bered he was a French surgeon. Many of the 
original MSS. of Swedenborg, which have since been 
published, were left in his hands. He had been 
initiated into the genuine Swedenborgian Rite by 
Springer, the Swedish ambassador, the brothers 
Nordenskjold, Charles Berns, Wadstrom, and Dr. 
Messiter, a Swedish physician, who attended Swe- 
denborg at his death. And all the MSS. which 
these gentlemen had obtained from the Academy 
at Stockholm, and also those which they took pos- 
session of when the Assessor died, were intrusted to 
this enthusiastic Swedenborgian Freemason, Bene- 
dict Chastanier. 

He had been a member of the Regime of the 
Philates, which consisted of twelve degrees, first 
instituted in Paris by Chevalier Savalette de la 
Lange in 1773, and subsequently revised in 1781. 
Here he became acquainted with the Swedenborgian 
name, tenets, and works ; and here he met the famous 
system-mongers, Cagliostro, Mesmer, Pernetti, Mar- 
quis de Thome, and others. 

We might here remark, that several of Sweden- 
borg's fellow-academicians at Stockholm had not 
only received the new religious system, but were also 



130 ILLUMINISM. 

fellow-masons. Indeed, the Academy of Sciences 
had been inoculated, and was a host of Swedenbor- 
gian admirers and advocates. Amongst these were 
C. B. Wadstrom and the two brothers Nordenskjold ; 
the former having been one of the directors. Hence 
the facility with which these gentlemen obtained the 
use, public and private, of any of the original MSS. 
committed to the custody of the Academy. All the 
original MSS. so obtained, or nearly all, were given 
to this Benedict Chastanier. 

When C. F. Nordenskjold left England in 1784, 
he left all the original MSS. of Swedenborg — which 
Aug. Nordenskjold and Director Wadstrom had bor- 
rowed from the Academy at Stockholm in 1783 — in 
charge of Dr. William Spence, with whom he had 
boarded while in London. And nearly all of what 
remained of these MSS. fell into the hands of Chas- 
tanier, or were handed over to him by Dr. Spence. 
Two quarto volumes in M. Chastanier's handwri- 
ting — in which, amongst other things, he proposes 
to publish Swedenborg's Spiritual Diary — are now 
in the Library of the London Printing Society. 

This Printing Society may be traced back to 1784, 
when Henry Peckitt, surgeon, Dr. William Spence, 
Eobert Hindmarsh, printer, and George Adams, 
jointly undertook the risk of publishing the Apoca- 



BENEDICT CHASTANIER, M. A. 131 

lypse Explained. But, on account of Chastanier's 
energy and devotion to the Swedenborgian cause, 
he was afterward added as joint editor, without any 
risk resulting from the publication. And when the 
first Swedenborgian Society in London was formed, 
Dec. 7th, 1788, his name stands the 37th signature 
on the list of members, who issued a circular of their 
Reasons for organizing into a new body, sect, or 
church. To the official document containing the 
Resolutions passed by the First Convention of the 
Swedenborgian Church, and to the Address sent out 
to all Swedenborgians — to both documents his name 
stands last on the list of signatures ; the date being 
April 16, 1789. 

In a printed French catalogue which he issued in 
1790, in London, there are twenty-four important 
works enumerated, large and small. He also issued 
an English prospectus, comprising eight pages oc- 
tavo. The following list shows the value of the 
original MSS. that were at one time in the possession 
of this one man. 

" Prospectus pour Imprimer par Souscription les 
(Euvres JPosthumes de V Ho7iorable et Savant Emanuel 
de Swedenborg" 

1. Index generalis Rerum et Kominum in Verbo Domini cod- 
tentorum. 



132 ILLUMINISM. 

2. Index Rerum in Arcanis contentarum. 

3. Index Rerum in numerosa Collectione Memorabiliurn, etc. 
4 Index Rerum in Apocalypsi Revelata. 

5. Index in particulari Tractatu de Conjugiis, etc. 

6. Index in Sensu Interno partis Prophetici Verbi. 

7. Index particularis Sententiarum e Scriptura Sacra, etc. 

8. Index in Libro Concordia pia noncupato. 

9. Collectio supra (No. 3) indicata Memorabilium, etc. (Diarium). 

10. Explicato Librorum historicorum Verbi Domini, etc. (Adver- 

saria). 

11. Breyis Expositio Sensus Spiritualis Prophetarmn, etc. 

12. Apocalypsis Explicata, etc. 

13. Yaria nunquam impressa de Ultimo Judicio, etc. 

14. Tractatus de Cbaritate. 

15. Canones prsecipui Novse Ecclesise. 

16. Divino Amore et de Divina Sapientia, necnon et de Con- 

jugio, etc. 

17. Supplementum in Coronide ad Yeram Christianam Reli- 

gionem. 

18. Quinque Memorabilia maximi momenti. 

19. Fragmenta pretiosa de QEconomia Regni Animalis, etc. 

20. Fragmenta nonnulla De Culta et Amore Dei. 

21. Clavis Hieroglyphica Arcanorum, etc. 

22. Fragmenta qusedam in opere Minerali. 

23. Yiarium Swedenborgii. {Itinerarium.) 

24. Collectio Somniorum Autoris, ab anno 1736 ad 1755. 

It must be confessed that the man who held in 
his own custody so many valuable original MSS. of 
Swedenborg merits our attention, when we remem- 
ber that he occupies a place in Masonic history as 
the originator of some Masonic degrees. 



XIY. 

OEDEE OF ILLUMINATI. 

Count Zinnendokf, Grand Master of Grand 
Lodge of Germany. 

He belonged to the Swedenborgian Lodge at 
Stockholm, and was introduced by the Grand Mas- 
ter of Germany, Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, who 
was also a member. He also became the Grand 
Master of Germany. The Count perverted the 
Swedenborgian Eite by mixing it with the exten- 
sion of a rite known as the " Illuminees of Avignon," 
established by Abbe Pernetti, Eoyal Librarian at 
Berlin. After abandoning the chiefs of the Templar 
degrees, he established a rite of seven degrees, 
whose better parts were stolen from the Sweden- 
borgian Eite. He subsequently extended it to nine 
degrees. It is now known in Europe as the Swe- 
dish, or rite of Zinnendorf. He succeeded in estab- 
lishing his system in Germany ; but when he applied 
to the Grand Lodge of England for its adoption, 
and enforced Iris application by a recommendation 



134 OEDEE OF ILLUMEsATI. 

of his system, written in cipher from the Grand 
Lodge of Sweden, his application was rejected. 

He received the Swedish system from the Master 
of the Stockholm Chapter, the Counsellor of Chan- 
cery, Yon Eckleff, without the privity of the Grand 
Lodge. In attempting to discover how far Zinnen- 
dorf may have been mixed up with the Gottenburg 
persecutions of Swedenborg and Professors Beyer 
and Rosen of the Consistory, we found some traces. 
We discovered that Dr. Ekebom was both a follower 
of Zinzendorf, or a Moravian in religion, and a fol- 
lower of Zinnendorf in Masonry ; and that the 
Counsellor of State, Count Rudcorskjold, who helped 
the persecution on at Stockholm, and aided Dr. Eke- 
bom, in his persecution, was of the same Masonic 
genus — both the Count and the Dean of Gottenburg 
were Zinnendorf Masons. 

From what Zinnendorf had learned of the Swe- 
denborgian Rite, the Swedish, and Templar de- 
grees, he manufactured his seven degrees, which 
were subsequently extended to nine degrees. 

A. Blue Masonry. — Three degrees of York Rite. 

B. Red Masonry. — 4. Scotch. Apprentice and F. C. ; 5. Scotch 
Master. 

C. Capitula Masonry.— 6. Confidant of St. John ; 7. Elected 

Brother. 



COUNT ZINNENDORF. 135 

Which were changed or extended to, 

A. Blue Masonry. — Three Blue degrees, as above. 

B. Red Masonry.— Three Reel degrees, as above. 

C. Capitula Masonry. — Three Capitula degrees. 

The three Chapter degrees were : 

7. Confidant of St. John. 

8. Enlightened Brother, or Knight of the South. 

9. Vicarious Salomonis, or most wise Master of the Order. 

The eighth degree is taken from the Chapitre Illu- 
mine of the Swedish degrees, which was composed 
of the Grand Officers, in which the history of the 
Order is given. It was originally taken from the 
first degree of the Swedenborgian Eite called Enlight- 
ened Brother, in which the history of the origin of 
the Order is given in general terms : even the name 
of the degree has been retained. 

The secret history of the fabrication and institu- 
tion of the spurious Swedish Rite, known as the 
Zinnendorf system of degrees, has yet to be written. 
Although the bitterness of religious feeling against 
Swedenborg, on the part of a few Lutheran or 
Moravian Bishops and clergy, was very great, yet 
the persecution which sprung up in 1769-1770 
would never have attained any prominence, if the 
spurious Swedish Rite fabricated by Zinnendorf 



136 ORDER OF ILLUMINATI. 

had not sprung into existence in Stockholm, just at 
this date. The Master of Stockholm Chapter, the 
Counsellor of Chanceiy, Yon Eckleff, gave Zinnen- 
dorf the Swedish system without the privity of the 
Grand Lodge ; and his Excellence Count Ekeblad, 
one of the Senators of the realm, a Swedenborgian 
Mason, gave Zinnendorf a portion of the Sweden- 
borg Rite, the first degree, about the close of 1768. 
Almost one of the first converts to the newly manu- 
factured system put forth by Zinnendorf was Count 
Rudcorskjold, Counsellor of State, in 1769-1771, an 
intimate friend of Count Ekeblad, w T ho was a re- 
ceiver of the Swedenborgian system, and one of 
Swedenborg's friends and intimate associates. It 
very soon became apparent to these fabricators of 
new degrees, that the nobility, and some of the most 
learned and influential Bishops of the Lutheran 
Church, were favorable to the Swedenborgian sys- 
tem, and that the members of the Royal Academies 
in Stockholm and Upsal were also advocates of the 
S}-stem, more or less favorably ; and that it was next 
to impossible to introduce any new system of de- 
grees unless the Swedenborgian Rite, in whole or in 
part, were introduced and embodied, so as to form 
a part of the new Order. The first degree of the 
Swedenborg Rite was accordingly remodelled and 



COUNT ZINNENDOKF. 137 

altered, so as to adapt it to the new system. Hence 
arose not only jealousies, but bitter feelings between 
the Swedenborgian Masons and members of the 
new system put forth by Zinnendorf and his ad- 
herents. This was in the fall of 1768. 

A few months afterward, in the spring of 1769, 
Swedenborg sent a letter to Dr. Beyer, member of 
the Ecclesiastical Consistory of Gottenburg, which 
gave birth to a glaring act of persecution, originating 
at Gottenburg. It was excited by Dr. Ekebom, 
Dean of the Consistory, and some of his Moravian 
clergy, against the Rev. Drs. Beyer and Bosen, 
professors in that place, in consequence of their 
having publicly advocated the Swedenborgian sys- 
tem of religion. In a letter which Swedenborg 
sent to Dr. Beyer, he instructs him to act as fol- 
lows: 

"I intend sending .you, by the first ship, twelve copies 
of this work (Brief Exposition, etc.), which you will 
please dispose of in the following manner : one copy 
to the Bishop, one to the Dean, etc. After this little 
work is perused, he pleased kindly to request the 
Dean to declare his opinion thereof, in the Consist- 
ory, etc. 

"Emanuel Swedenbokg. 

"Amsterdam, March 15th, 1769." 



138 ORDER OF ILLOIIXATL 

Beyer showed liim the letter, urged the sugges- 
tion, and the Dean undertook the task, but with a 
malicious intent. The fat was in the fire at once. 
He took Swedenborg at his word, but he openly 
declared in the Consistory that the work was heret- 
ical, and ought to be condemned and suppressed. 
Swedenborg, by this request, had raised the devil 
when he didn't expect it. Bishop Filenius, who 
was Swedenborg's nejDhew and enemy, undertook to 
manage the affair, and bring it under the cognizance 
of the Supreme Council of the State, or the Sen- 
ate, in which the king presided. Filenius was 
Bishop of East-Gothland, and officiated as Presi- 
dent of the Ecclesiastical Order in the Diet of Swe- 
den, in place of the Archbishop, who was infirm. 
To accomplish his purpose, he gained oyer some of 
its members secretly, then instructed the deputies 
of Gottenburg to complain of both Swedenborg and 
Drs. Beyer and Bosen. A committee was appointed 
by order of the clergy, consisting of bishops and 
professors, who reported somewhat favorably of the 
defendants, and refused to condemn. But the man- 
aging bishop, with Dean Ekebom, so far prevailed 
that a memorial was presented to his Majesty and 
Council, asking the king to order the Chancellor of 
Justice, Count Budcorskjold, to investigate the trou- 



GOUKT ZINNENDORF. 139 

bles at Gottenburg. So the Chancellor addressed 
a letter to the consistories, desiring their opin- 
ion : and this matter agitated the council for two 
days ; for the Swedenborgian Masons, and those 
favoring Swedenborgianism, were the strongest and 
also the most influential party in the Senate. Swe- 
denborg and Beyer sent in separate memorials, and 
the king, who presided in the Council, instructed the 
Chancellor of Justice to order the Consistory of 
Gottenburg to stop all further agitation of the 
matter. 

But the Chancellor, Count Budcorskjold, was a 
secret enemy of Swedenborg. He had been influ- 
enced by Bishop Filenius, but more especially by 
Eckleff, Ex-counsellor of Chancery, Master of Stock- 
holm Chapter, and one of the projectors of the Zin- 
nendorf system of Swedish Masonry. The Sweden- 
borg system stood in the way of the spurious Swe- 
dish system which had just been fabricated and put 
into operation a few months previously in Stock- 
holm. The Chancellor of Justice was aiding and 
helping to work and establish these degrees. So 
he betrayed Swedenborg, the king, and the Sen- 
ate, by secretly ordering that a penalty of fifty 
dollars should be imposed upon any one who 
brought Swedenborg's works into Gottenburg, that 



140 ORDER OF ILLUMINATE 

the works are prohibited on account of their here- 
sies. 

Swedenborg's friends belonged to the high order 
of Masons, and were Counts of the realm — Hopken 
the Prime Minister, Bonde, Ekeblad, Tessin, Schef- 
fer, Bjelke, and others. They at once pressed the 
monarch into the fraternity ; and hence the Masonic 
world is indebted to this Gottenburg persecution 
of Swedenborg and Drs. Beyer and Rosen, for the 
initiation of Gustavus III. of Sweden into the 
brotherhood of Freemasonry. Old Bishop Sved- 
berg, father of Emanuel, had been the Boyal 
Chaplain, so that Swedenborg had always been on 
terms of intimacy with the royal family. So, in this 
emergency, he appealed directly to the king, and 
claimed his personal protection, which was granted. 
The king spoke to the Chancellor himself, and 
nothing more was ever heard of the prohibition of 
his works. The following quotations from letters 
bearing upon this persecution, although very brief, 
will sufficiently answer our purpose. 

Count Hopken, the Prime Minister, to General Tuxen. 

" Sie : — I have had the honor of receiving your letter, 

dated Elsineur, June 16, etc The matter began, 

at Gottenburg, particularly against the late Dr. Beyer, 



COUNT ZINNENDOEF. 141 

aud was continued here by the Chancellor of Justice, 
but came to nothing; for neither the accuser nor the 
judges understood Swedenborg, and had no lights or 
capacity to judge of such matters, etc. 

" HoPKEN." 

" Stockholm, July 6th, 1781." 

Swedenborg to General Taxen. 

"Sir: — I received your letter of March 4th, by Lieut. 

Tuxen, your son, etc I have suffered this matter, 

and all the invectives used against me at Gottenburg, to 
come to an end ; and I have since sent the Chancellor 
of Justice and the Senator Ekeblad a copy of the an- 
nexed, by means of which I effected a change in the 
business, of which I shall inform you some other time, 
etc. 

"Emanuel Swedenborg. 
" Stockholm, May 1st, 1770." 

" Should the Dr. and Dean (Ekebom) not recall his 
deposition or reflections, and entirely neglect them, I 
intend, as the remarks or opinions of the Council, of the 
High Court, and of the Colleges, have been published, 
that the Deposition of the Dean and my Defence shall 
also be published ; upon which, I can afterward com- 
mence an action in laiv concerning the proceedings, etc. 

" Emanuel Swedenborg. 

" Amsterdam, April 15th, 1769." 

The means which Swedenborg used was more 



142 OKDEB OF ILLUMTNATI. 

Masonic than eitlier theological or otherwise. The 
Chancellor, Count Budcorskjold, and Count Eke- 
blad, were not only intimate friends, but were also 
members of the Stockholm Chapter, of which both 
EcklefT and Zinnendorf were members. And the 
personal friendship and intimacy of Count Ekeblad 
with all these Zinnendorf Masons was brought to 
bear upon them, and withdraw them from all asso- 
ciation with the Moravian bigots who started the 
persecution and fanned the flame with their agita- 
tions. In this he succeeded, and the persecution 
ceased in its public form with their withdrawal. 
Swedenborg, in fact, at the suggestion of the king, 
intimated to the Chancellor of Justice, through 
Count Ekeblad, that he would commence proceed- 
ings against him and his abettors. Or, to use his 
own words : 

"Amongst other matters I shall give them to under- 
stand, that so soon as the Assembly of the States is 
pretty numerously attended, I shall send in a formal 
complaint about the proceeding of the Counsellor of 
State in the Gottenburg affair concerning you and me ; 
from which I hope for a favorable result, etc. 

" Emanuel Swedenborg. 

"Amsterdam, July 2d, 1770." 



COUNT ZINNENDOKF. 143 

Swedenborg to the King. 

"Sire: — I find myself necessitated at this period to 
have recourse to your Majesty's protection, having met 
with usage of such a nature as no other person has 
experienced since the establishment of Christianity in 
Sweden, and much less since there has "been liberty of 
conscience, etc. 

" I was further informed that your Majesty, hearing 
of this dispute, took it up under your own consideration, 
decided it hi the Senate, and ordered the Chancellor to 
forward letters relative thereto to the Consistory of 
Gottenburg, etc. 

" A rumor has, nevertheless, spread throughout Stock- 
holm, that the Chancellor of Justice has declared in 
writing to the Consistory at Gottenburg, that my works 
are prohibited from being brought into that place, under 
the penalty of fifty dollars, and that my writings have 
been declared false, and not true, etc. 

"Emanuel Swedenboeg. 

" Stockholm, May 10th, 1770." 

This persecution would never have attained the 
prominence it did, but for the bitterness of feeling 
which existed between the Swedenborgian and the 
Zinnendorf Masons — the first being headed by the 
king and his Prime Minister, Count Hopken, and 
the latter headed by the Chancellor of Justice, 



144 ORDER OF ILLUM1NATI. 

Count Kudcorskjold, Count Lars Yon Engestrom, 
Zinnendorf, and EcklefT, the Master of Stockholm 
Chapter. The Moravian ferment, though it origi- 
nated the movement, would have been incapable of 
mischief in high quarters, had it not been aided by 
the bitter feelings of the Zinnendorf Masons, who 
were determined to force their new system into 
prominence. 

Swedenborg, however, paid some attention to the 
Chancellor of Justice, and sent him a copy of all his 
works through their mutual friend, Count Ekeblad, 
and thus allayed the bitterness and hostility of the 
Zinnendorf Masons, who made up in activity and 
persistence what they lacked in number, learning, 
and influence. Their aim was to make the new 
Swedish system which they had fabricated the fash- 
ionable one at the Swedish Court in Stockholm, 
which they failed to do. 

When this persecution had been decided legally 
by the king in the Senate, and it was found that the 
friends of Swedenborg had covered him with the 
king's own order and the decision of the Senate, 
the Zinnendorf Masons made an effort to entrap 
Swedenborg with the proposition set forth in the 
following advertisement. 



COUNT ZINNENDORF. 145 

Pro Memoria (1771). 

" We flatter ourselves, through Monsieur de Sweden- 
borg, to obtain some information of what has become 
of a certain Prince of Saxe Coburg Salfeldt, by the name 
of John William, who was lost in 1745, without any 
person having the least knowledge of his fate. But no 
information has been furnished in relation to his age 
and person." — Allmannen Journdlen, No. 104, for 1813. 

The inquiry was put to Swedenborg by the Coun- 
sellor of State, Count Budcorskjold, at the sugges- 
tion of Zinnendorf, under the plea of deep interest 
in the fate of the prince ; but in reality to test his 
claims with a case that had become a problem with 
more States than one. Swedenborg did not attempt 
to solve the problem, but gave a courteous reply, 
which is too unimportant to give here, because 
somewhat foreign to our purpose. The struggle 
had settled the question, and it was decisively set- 
tled in favor of Swedenborgianism. Ever after- 
ward the Zinnendorf adherents spoke in praise of 
the Swedenborg system, and other fields than Stock- 
holm were sought for the establishment and cul- 
tivation of the new Swedish system, now known as 
the Zinnendorf Rite. 

The fabrication of new systems was the order of 



146 ORDER OF ILLUMINATI. 

the day about this period. The author of the Re- 
ligions Bezebenheiten says, that — 

"Men of rank and fortune, and engaged in serious 
and honorable public employment, not only frequented 
the Lodges of the cities where they resided, but jour- 
neyed from one end of France and Germany to the 
other, to visit new Lodges, or to learn new secrets or 
new doctrines. I saw Conventions held at Wisimar, at 
Wisibad, at Kohlo, at Brunswick, and at Wilhemsbad, 
consisting of some hundreds of persons of respectable 
stations. I saw adventurers coming to a city, professing 
some new secret, and in a few days forming new Lodges, 
and instructing in a troublesome and expensive manner 
hundreds of Brethren." 



XV. 
ILLUMINISM. 

Chevalier Savalette de la Lange. 

He instituted the regime of Masonry known as 
the twelve classes of degrees of the Philaletes, in 
Paris, in 1773 ; and in 1781, an improved edition of 
the same was instituted and worked, combining the 
Swedenborg, Martin, and Weishaupt systems into 
one series. He must have obtained his knowledge 
of the Swedenborgian Bite from either Zinnendorf 
or Pernetti. This Order was the most notable of 
all spurious forms of the Swedenborgian Pite. It 
numbered amongst its members the most nota- 
ble innovators of the time — St. Germain, Mesmer, 
Cagliostro, Kaymond, Chastanier, and Marquis de 
Thome. It had accredited agents scattered through- 
out Europe. Chastanier is the principal authority 
for this statement of its influence and membership. 
JDe Thome, however, endorsed the statement. This 
latter gentleman was an enthusiastic propagator of 
the doctrines of Swedenborg, but especially of his 
scientific theories of cosmogony and magnetism. 



XYI. 
ILLUMINISM. 

Abbe Pebnettl 

He was born in 1716, and notable in Masonic 
history as the fabricator of an Order called the 
" IUuminees of Avignon" which was originally based 
on matters taken from the teachings of the Sweden- 
borgian Kite, mixed with the teachings of St. Mar- 
tin. He was a Benedictine monk, and had great 
influence at Eome ; for, when the Nuncio of Avig- 
non ordered Pernetti and his adepts to leave the 
country, he procured an order from Eome permit- 
ting them to remain. The Abbe was Librarian to 
the King of Prussia, when he became acquainted with 
the writings of Swedenborg. He was initiated into 
the spurious Swedish Rite, and made many attempts 
to be admitted into the genuine Swedenborgian 
Lodge at Berlin, but without effect. He obtained 
books and information relating to Swedenborg from 
Christopher Springer, the Swedish consul at London, 
who was personally intimate with the Assessor. 



ABBE PEENETTI. 149 

From the books and information thus obtained, 
he published a French translation of Swedenborg's 
"Heaven and Hell" And in the Preface he intro- 
duces the information obtained from Springer, Count 
Hopken, Nordenskjold, and others. Indeed, for a 
long time, the leading writers in the Swedenborgian 
Church relied upon his French copies of original 
documents relating to the biography of Swedenborg. 
Thus Clowes' " Eefutation of Abbe Barruel's Calum- 
nies," Hindmarsh's " Beply to Pike," Noble's " Ap- 
peal," Tafel's, Smithson's, and Bush's "Docu- 
ments," publish SandeVs Eulogium on Swedenborg 
in the House of Nobles, which was first copied from 
the document which Abbe Pernetti inserted in his 
Memoirs. But recently the original has been ob- 
tained by Prof. B. L. Tafel. 

From some cause or other, which does not appear, 
the Swedenborgian Masons would not associate 
with him, nor give him any information of the 
Assessor or his symbolic system. What they did 
furnish was very meagre. Nordenskjold, to whom 
he applied first, sent him to Springer, the Swedish 
consul at London, who sent him the following letter, 
which shows the attitude of this notable inventor of 
spurious degrees in the year 1782. 



150 ILLUMINISM. 

Christopher Springer, Swedish Consul at London, to 
Abbe Pemetti, Librarian to the King of Prussia. 

u Sir : — By the letter with which you have honored 
me, dated Berlin, the 6th December last, which came late 
to hand, I perceived that you desire to have some of 
the works published by the late assessor, Emanuel 
Swedenborg ; as also a relation of the particulars that 
passed at my meeting with him during his lifetime; 
and that my friends, Messrs. de Nordenskjold, have di- 
rected you to me for such information ; in regard to which, 
I shall satisfy your desires on those heads, so far as my 
strength and sight will permit me, which have failed 
me considerably within the last two years, and which, 
on my approaching near to my seventy-ninth year, is 
indeed less to be wondered at. 

It gives me a very particular pleasure to understand 
that you, sir, intend to translate some of his works, to 
the intent that they may become more generally Jcnoivn ; 
and that you purpose beginning with that entitled, 
Arcana Coelestia. It is in eight volumes, and sells for 
eight guineas. His last tract, entitled Coronis seu Ap- 
p>endix ad Veram Christianam JReligionem, sells for 
two shillings. The expense for the carriage may be 
about three shillings more; so that the total will 
amount to eight pounds thirteen shillings. An oppor- 
tunity of sending them by Hamburg may be found 
during any month in the year. 

" I waited, sir, on the Count de Luzi, and informed 
him of your commission to me respecting these books* 



ABBE PEKNETTL 151 

He told me that he had not received any advice, but 
as he was well acquainted with you, it was sufficient ; 
and that he would take upon him to advance the money 
for the purchase of the books ; adding afterward, that 
it might not be amiss that you should be informed of 
the high price of them before they were sent. It will, 
therefore, entirely depend upon you, sir, to inform me 
whether you wish to have them sent. 

"I apprehend, sir, that you must be possessed of 
another Latin work of the late Swedenborg, entitled, 
De Coelo et Inferno. I could wish, nevertheless, that 
you were also possessed of the English translation of that 
work, which was performed by the learned doctor in 
divinity, Thomas Hartley : in the margin of that work 
are to be met with notes and observations of the trans- 
lator. His treatise costs ten shillings. 

"C. Springer. 

" London, January 18th, 1782." 

His desire to have the works of Swedenborg for 
study, translation, and publication, and his applica- 
tion for membership into the genuine Swedenbor- 
gian Order, made about this period, 1781, would 
seem to indicate that his mind had undergone a 
change, and he was sick of spurious degrees : he 
desired to return to genuine symbolic Masonry. 
His rite, called the Illuminees of Avignon, was 
established in 1760. He was engaged about 1770, 
with Baron Knigge, Gugomos, Schrcepfer, and 



152 ILLUMINISM. 

Stark, in establishing Hermetic Masonry, and they 
engrafted it very successfully into the high de- 
grees. Baron Hund and he were thus specially 
engaged; but these charlatans soon quarrelled, 
each set up a new and separate system, and were 
followed by other adventurers, too numerous to 
mention. He had more or less to do with all the 
prominent systems. General Assemblies were con- 
vened year after year, at one place or another, with 
the avowed purpose of settling these differences, 
and restoring Freemasonry to its primitive purity ; 
but they failed to produce any abatement of the 
general grievance. At length he appears to have 
become sick of these inventions, for at the age of 
sixty-five, in 1781, we find him coming back to the 
study and publication of that symbolic system 
which alone, of all he had seen, studied, invented, 
and advocated, was worthy of adoption. At the 
close of a long and eventful life, he became an advo- 
cate of the Swedenborgian system. From that 
date, 1781, Abbe Pernetti was never more in league 
with the spurious Masons of his age. He devoted 
the remainder of his days to the advocacy of the 
Swedenborgian system. 



XVII. 
EGYPTIAN ADOPTIVE MASONRY. 

Count Cagliostro. 

His degrees were few in number, and designed 
to teach the pretended secrets of hermetic science, 
knowledge of the philosopher's stone, and elixir of 
life. His system was cast in an Egyptian mould. 
He was initiated into the degrees of De Lange. In 
the year 1786, he appeared in London and attempted 
to bring together the Swedenborgians and the dif- 
ferent branches of the Zinnendorf system, by means 
of the following advertisement in the Horning 
Herald : 

"To all true Masons. In the name of Jehovah. 
The time is at length arrived for the construction of the 
New Temple of Jerusalem. The advertiser invites all 
true Masons to meet him on the 3d inst., at nine o'clock, 
at Reilly's Tavern, Great Queen St., to form a plan for 
levelling the footstone of the true and only Temple in 
the visible world." 



154 EGYPTIAN ADOPTIVE MASONRY. 

He visited all the Masons who knew Zinnendorf s 
degrees, but failed to obtain any extensive co-opera- 
tion. Setting aside the usual formalities of an 
introduction, he appeared amongst the Sweden- 
borgians at their room in Middle Temple, where they 
had met and organized under the title of a " Theo- 
sophical Society." He introduced himself as a 
Polish nobleman, under the assumed name of Count 
Sufkowski. He claimed that he hailed from a Swe- 
denborgian secret society at Avignon, in France, of 
which he was a member, which had been formed in 
the north of Europe, in 1779. The Swedenborgians 
could not penetrate his designs. An air of mystery 
hung over the whole account given of his secret 
society at Avignon ; and he was immediately sus- 
pected of coming to England with the view of 
making proselytes to some one of the spurious 
orders of Swedenborgian rites ; for he seemed to be 
fully posted in the doctrines of the New Church, 
and its symbolic system. Being a man of ability 
and most engaging manners, he wonderfully suc- 
ceeded in gaining the good opinion of the mem- 
bers. 

The Count attended all the meetings, and joined 
in familiar conversation with each of the members. 
He appeared an enthusiastic admirer of the learned 



COUNT CAGLIOSTRO. 155 

Swede, and his conversation was always interesting 
and animated. At these meetings, he made a spe- 
cial request to have the communion delivered at 
every regular meeting; and (after the manner of 
foreigners) used to embrace and kiss each one three 
times. At every meeting, he always gave the mem- 
bers to understand that he and his society were in 
possession of a Grand Secret, which he was not then 
at liberty to divulge. Many months he thus ap- 
peared amongst the members ; but to none but 
those who were Masons did he venture to name his 
Grand Secret. At the end of the year 1786, the 
Count took an affectionate leave of the society, 
which had assembled at the house of the Kev. Ja- 
cob Duche, Chaplain of the Orphan Asylum in St. 
George's Fields, one of the most popular preachers 
in London, who was privately a Swedenborgian. 
The Count returned to France. A few months after, 
he and five others of his society in Avignon, sent a 
letter, written in a good spirit, but containing some 
mysterious allusions to their possession of some 
Grand Secret. The following are extracts from this 
letter : 



156 EGYPTIAN ADOPTIVE MASONBY- 

"From the Society at Avignon to the Children of the 
New Kingdom in London. 

" Veby deae axd weel-beloved Bretheex : — 

"After having returned the most sincere thanks to 

the Lord our God, that he hath been pleased to permit 
our very dear brother, Couxt Geabiaxeia (who was 
known to you by the name of Sutkowskt), to come 
amongst us — a circumstance that we have long de- 
sired — we hasten to join him in returning you the most 
sincere thanks for the civil and distinguished manner 
with which you treated him while he dwelt amongst 
you. 

" We thank you equally for the inestimable present 
you made him of several of the works of Swedenborg, 
to be delivered to our society, as a pledge of the union 
which the Lord is about to form between us 

" Yes, dear brethren, there exists a society which the 
Loed Jesus Cheist has formed. It was in the year 
1779, and in the north of Europe, that he was pleased 
to lay the foundations thereof. Some of those who were 
first favored by his choice, received afterward orders to 
go to the south. Five of this number being reunited, 
expected, for some time past, their very dear brother 
Geabiaxka, etc. The rest, who are dispersed in differ- 
ent countries, earnestly expect the same order. TVe 
know already, that one of them, who has nearly finished 
his first course, will very soon join us. The ensuing 
spring will bring back fifteen, and we expect many more 



COUNT CAGLIOSTRO. 157 

brethren and sisters that we know will be called in the 
course of this year. 

" Eight successive years (passed away in the obscurity 
and silence imposed upon the greater part amongst us) 
have at last brought us to this happy day, wherein we 
are to open our hearts to our brethren, etc. 
" Very dear and well-beloved Englishmen, 

" Your brethren in Jesus Christ." 

(Signed by Count) Grabianka, 

And five others. 
February 12th, 1787. 

In this letter, the year 1779 is given as the date 
at which his system was organized. He also claims 
that in that year, when in the north of Europe, he 
was divinely commissioned to lay the foundations 
of a new system. There is a grain of truth in this 
statement, the rest is an impious fabrication. The 
first Lodge in which he experimented with his sys- 
tem was founded in Lyons ; it was called Triumph- 
ant Wisdom, and was a magnificent failure ; but it 
underwent a complete transformation, and then be- 
came popular. His first ideas of the Egyptian 
Adoptive Masonry were developed by this experi- 
ment. Hence his next Lodge was opened in Paris 
as an androgyne Lodge, and was called the Mother 
Lodge of Egyptian Adoptive Masonry. 

In the year 1779 he went into Courland and 



158 EGYPTIAN ADOPTIVE MASONRY. 

north of Europe, where his fascinating representa- 
tions enabled him to number amongst his dupes 
the Countess cle lileden, "who introduced him to the 
notice of the Empress Catherine. He succeeded for 
a time, but was ultimately exposed, and had to 
escape from the country. He then returned to 
Avignon and organized the society to which the 
above letter refers. He subsequently retired to 
Strasburg, where he established the headquarters 
of his Egyptian system. The impostors who had 
been engaged with him in his Russian impositions, 
and compelled to fly for their life, were publicly 
denounced and hunted by spies put on their track 
by the Empress and ladies of the Russian court. 
These were the very men who had now assembled 
at Avignon, and who say, in this letter, that they 
had been separated for "eight successive years, 
passed in the obscurity and silence imposed upon the 
greater part amongst us." There is just eight years 
from 1779, when they escaped from the Russian 
court, to the date of this letter, 1787. The impo- 
sitions which Cagliostro and his accomplices had 
played upon the ladies of this court, even including 
the Empress, were of a nature which made it neces- 
sary that the entire party should break up, and each 
act upon his own responsibility ; imposing upon all 



COUNT CAGLIOSTRO. 159 

the utmost secrecy and silence for a time, and for- 
bidding any intercourse or communication, so as to 
prevent any possibility of being traced, should any 
one of the party be tracked and apprehended. This 
event made it necessary that the Count should as- 
sume a fictitious name. It was the bane of his 
future career. In the Acta Latomorum, vol. ii., is a 
long and interesting correspondence between Gag- 
liostro and the Paris Convention of 1785. 

We have an amusing confirmation of the fact that 
this impostor appeared in England in the year 1786, 
under the name and title of a Polish Count Sutkoivs- 
M, in a letter written by the celebrated versatile an- 
tiquary, Lord Orford, better known as Horace Wal- 
pole. The Count paid a visit to Strawberry Hill, 
where the antiquary resided ; but his lordship was 
in Paris, and not finding him at home, the Count 
left his card. He was so obviously economical in 
his presents to the servants, that the antiquary con- 
cluded he was an impostor. "We have copied the 
following from an original letter which his lordship 
addressed to the Countess of Ossory. It is an ex- 
cellent description of the man, and accords with the 
Swedenborgian description. 

" Did your ladyship hear of a Prince SutJcowsM, who 



160 EGYPTIAN ADOPTIVE MASONRY. 

was lately in England [this was about Nov., 1786] ? 
He was competitor with the present king for the crown 
of Poland, is hideous, and covered with brilliants. 
George Selwyn said he had never before seen such a 
monster set in diamonds. This opulent Palatine came 
about a fortnight ago with his reine manquee to see 
Strawberry, and was admitted without a ticket, as all 
foreigners are. I was not here [his lordship was then 
in Paris, but had returned to his residence two weeks 
afterward] ; he left a card with all his titles, as Prince 
of Thiski z Duke of TViatski, etc., to thank me, in the 
name of all Europe for the free ingress of all strangers. 
It seems the part of his revenues in specie (for it would 
be cumbersome to give a handful to the peasants of 
every housekeeper) is rigidly economical (unless you 
reckon the list of titles on his cards) ; on Margaret he 
bestowed four-and-sixpence, having appropriated but 
five shillings to this visit, of which, prudently reflecting 
that he might be overturned or lose a wheel, he retained 
one sixpence: however, being asked, like the Duchess 
of Beaufort, to visit the chapel, he surmounted his sage 
reserve, and generously conferred that sixpence on the 
gardener ! 

" ' The Crown of Poland, venal twice an age, 
To just three millions stinted modest Gage.' 

' ; I suppose it is cheaper since the partition." — Wal- 
pole Letters from 1769-1797. 

The first Lodge was established at Paris in 1773 
and 1781 by Savalette de la Lange, for the pur- 






COUNT CAGLIOSTRO. 161 

pose of concentrating the system of Weisliaupt. 
Its members included St. Germain, Mesmer, De la 
Lange, Cagliostro, and other well-known impostors. 
• Cagliostro's letter is a valuable document, when we 
consider that it reveals the inception of that Society 
which gave birth to the Order of " Philaletes," a form 
of Illuminism which had its agents all over Europe, 
and exercised as much, perhaps more influence than 
any other secret order, during the first stages of the 
French Eevolution. Cagliostro was born at Paler- 
mo, in 1743, and at an early period entered the order 
of the Fraternity of Mercy, where he made medicine 
a specialty, and was distinguished therein. In his 
extensive travels, he assumed the name of Marquis 
Pellegrini, amongst the English Swedenborgians it 
was Count Sutkowski, at Avignon it was Count Gra- 
bianka, but generally he was known as Count Cag- 
liostro. The original letter was preserved by Robert 
Hindmarsh, leader of the London Society, to which 
it was addressed, and is now in the possession of the 
family. 

Oliver, in his " Historical Landmarks of Freema- 
sonry," has simply recorded the fact, that Count 
Cagliostro appeared in London, 1786 (see p. 65, note 
46; and again, p. 84, note 79). The fact is simply 
this : he came to unite the Swedenborgian Masons 



162 EGYPTIAN ADOPTIVE MASONRY. 

with those who were then organizing themselves at 
Avignon, into what subsequently appeared as the 
Order of the " Philatates of Avignon." And he lived 
upon the Swedenborgian members of the " Theoso- 
phical Society" of Temple Bar, London, during the 
whole time of his stay in London, as the above let- 
ter, written by himself, testifies. A careful investi- 
gation of his personal history has elicited the fact, 
that in the spring of 1786 he had the misfortune or 
indiscretion to be somewhat involved in the famed 
matter of the " Necklace," and being also a confi- 
dant of Cardinal de Rohan, the Count was fortu- 
nate in being only banished. He therefore retired 
to London, and appeared amongst the Swedenbor- 
gians under the title of Count Suikowski. By the by, 
Count de Bohan was a reader of Swedenborg's wri- 
tings, which were sent to him by Swedenborg him- 
self, as appears by his printed letter to his Excel- 
lency the Swedish ambassador to France. (Docu- 
ments of Swedenborg.) He also belonged to the 
Scottish Bite, and was one of the signers to that 
patent document given to Besp.v Bro.\ Stephen 
Morin, Inspector of American Lodges. Sweden- 
borg's letter, which says that two copies of his 
Apoccdypsis Revelata had been sent to Cardinal 
Prince de Bohan, bears date (Spring) 1766. Three 



COUNT CAGLIOSTRO. 163 

years later the Cardinal met Swedenborg in Paris. 
(See Article VIII.) 

Some months afterward, two Swedenborgians, 
William Bryant of London, and John Wright of 
Leeds, who had heard of this letter, resolved to visit 
the Count's Society at Avignon, and ascertain its 
character. Their object was avowedly to join the 
secret society, and so become perfectly acquainted 
with its secrets and objects. At Paris they found a 
third person, Mr. Bousie, leader of the small Swe- 
denborgian Society in Paris, who readily agreed to 
accompany them. Bousie, who resided at Passy 
pres Paris, collected what little he could and made 
common stock of it ; and all marched together, in 
the humble style of pedestrians, from Paris. After 
many hardships they arrived safely at Avignon, the 
place of destination. Here they found the Society 
they were in search of, and were received with a 
hearty welcome by all the members. After a cer- 
tain process of examination, probation, and promise 
of secrecy, they were finally initiated into the mys- 
teries of the Order. But they soon became satisfied 
that they were in the secret of a spurious Sweden- 
borgian Society of Freemasons, who had no genu- 
ine Swedenborgian Rite to give them. 

The excitement thus created led Springer, Hind- 



164 EGYPTIAN ADOPTIVE MASONRY. 

marsh, and the rest of the Swedenborgian Masons 
in London, to collect and store up such information 
as could be obtained from living witnesses who had 
seen and known Swedenborg in any part of the 
world. Most of them were now old men and women, 
and in all probability would pass aw r ay within a few 
years. They deemed it a duty to collect all the 
testimony within their power, for future use, so as 
to be prepared for any attempt to impose spurious 
Swedenborgian histories and systems upon future 
generations. 

These two men testified that during their initia- 
tion they were informed that the members had 
mediate communication with heaven : that at certain 
seasons they assembled at the top of a mountain, 
where an angel met and conversed with them : that 
this angel once presented each of them with a glass 
phial filled with a red liquid, which he told them 
was the dew of heaven, and which, if carried in 
their bosoms, would be a continual protection to 
them against enemies, and would, moreover, enable 
them at all times to perform miracles, provided they 
had sufficient faith in its virtues. 

In one of the degrees, these two novitiates were 
solemnly introduced to what was called the actual 
and personal presence of the Lord, which was repre- 



COUNT CAGLIOSTEO. 165 

sented by a comely and majestic young man, arrayed 
in purple garments, seated in an inner apartment 
decorated with heavenly emblems, on a throne or 
chair of state in the east, who claimed the homage 
of these newly-initiated devotees. 



XVIII. 
SWEDENBOBGIAN EITE IN AMEKICA. 

In the year 1859, a number of Swedenborgians 
who had taken the higher degrees were initiated 
into the Swedenborgian degrees. A Lodge, called 
Menei Temple No. 1, was organized and began 
work, Feb., 1859, in the old Kane Lodge Boom, 
Broadway, New York city. From thence it was 
removed to the Egyptian Eoom, Odd Fellows' Hall, 
and worked from May, 1861-1862. A few meetings 
were subsequently held in the Montauk Lodge 
Eoom, Brooklyn, Long Island. 

Some of the leading Masons of New York have 
had the degrees conferred on them by communica- 
tion: indeed, but few of the members have seen the 
degrees worked in full. Applications for admission 
have come from every quarter of the American con- 
tinent, and there can be no doubt that the Sweden- 
borgian Eite is destined, in a few years, to spread 
itself over the continent of America, north, south, 
east, and west, if its leaders do nothing to restrain it. 



SWEDENBORGIAN RITE IN AMERICA. 167 

The genuine Swedenborgian Bite is now called 
"The Primitive and Original Eite of Symbolic 
Freemasonry." It consists of six degrees, which 
are classified as follows : 

1. Entered Apprentice. 2. Fellow Craft. 3. Master Mason. 

4. Enlightened Freemason, or Green Brother. 

5. Sublime Freemason, or Blue Brother. 

6. Perfect Freemason, or Red Brother. 

The first three are simply the common degrees of 
the York Rite. The other three form the higher 
degrees of the Swedenborgian Eite, and distinc- 
tively constitute the " Primitive and Original Eite 
of Symbolic Masonry." All the highest officers of 
this Order are Swedenborgians, or members of the 
Swedenborgian New Church. But the Order is 
thrown open to all Masons of merit, without regard 
to their religious belief. 

Evils are seldom seen when in a state of potency, 
but are generally exposed and regretted after de- 
velopment, when all the mischief and disorder have 
culminated, It is a matter of deep regret, that the 
first Swedenborgian Lodges followed the old Ma- 
sonic plan of working at such times and places as 
were most convenient, and without any charters or 
authority but the personal knowledge of the breth- 
ren present. But the practice was continued, be- 



168 SWEDENBORGIAN KITE IN AMERICA. 

cause there has always prevailed a custom of con- 
ferring the degrees upon none other than Masons 
of merit, and mainly upon Swedenborgian Masons. 
Since the introduction of the Order on this conti- 
nent, this practice has been almost discontinued, 
and the degrees thrown open to all Masons. The 
leaders have deemed it prudent, however, to con- 
fine the initiations mainly to Past Masters of the 
York Eite, and to members of the Scottish Rite, of 
which Swedenborg was a member. The circum- 
stances which have made it prudent to do this, will 
exist for some years to come, but will eventually 
disappear, with all restrictions. 

The Swedenborgian Eite, consisting of six de- 
grees, has two Grand Divisions : 

I. York Eite, or Temple Masonry of three de- 
grees, being an embodiment of the Ancient and 
Original Eitual, and dating back to the period of 
building Solomon's Temple. 

II. Swedenborgian Eite of Symbolic Masonry 
of three degrees, being the original model of all 
forms of ancient Eituals, and dating back to the 
period preceding the building of Solomon's Temple. 

The Swedenborgian Eite is worked in the same 
Lodges and with the same furniture and jewels as 
the York Eite, with a few exceptions. The Eitual 



SWEDENBORGIAN EITE IN AMEEICA. 169 

officers are similarly stationed, and rank similarly. 
Every candidate is required to be a M.\ M.\ of the 
York Rite ; but it makes no difference whether he 
has received the York Eite in a Swedenborgian 
Lodge or in a common Blue Lodge, provided it be 
a legitimate Lodge of the York Rite. But there are 
some radical points in which the members of a Swe- 
denborgian Lodge differ from common usage of the 
present date, when they work the York Rite in their 
Lodges. They claim that their work is the same as 
was in use in the aristocratic and best-informed 
Lodges in the north of Europe and in Germany, 
before the revision of the work in England in the 
year 1717. These Lodges were very exclusive, and 
none were admitted but men of high rank and Ma- 
sons of eminent merit. So that the work did not 
undergo those radical changes from forgetfulness in 
ignorant minds, nor from mistakes made by unedu- 
cated persons in the pronunciation of important 
words and phrases. Thus Mackey, in his Manual of 
the Lodge, says, " The too common error of speaking 
in this part of the Ritual, of a ' water-ford,' instead 
of a ' waterfall,' which is the correct word, must be 
carefully avoided." The exclusiveness of the aristo- 
cratic lodges in the north of Europe, amongst the 
educated classes of the seventeenth and eighteenth 



170 SWEDENBOKGIAN PJTE IX AMERICA. 

centuries, prevented these and similar mistakes and 
innovations from creeping into their work, as they 
did into the Lodges in England about the same 
period. It was beyond the power of persecution 
to stop their regular work ; and the landmarks were 
preserved with much greater integrity. 

The Swedenborgian Eite has two departments — 
Lodge and Temple. All the unritual business — 
elections, voting on general subjects, discussions, 
reports of committees, examination of a candidate's 
proficiency — in short, all business matters are con- 
cluded in the Lodge. After which, members pro- 
ceed to the Temple in a formal manner, where 
nothing but the actual Ritual work is done ; or such 
Lectures and instructions are given as may be ne- 
cessary for the improvement and advancement of 
the members. Lodge work is to Temple work, 
what the preparation, sacrifice, and offerings in 
the east, north, and south entrances to the courts 
of Solomon's Temple, are to the inner services of 
the Temple. The dresses worn in the Temple, 
and the vessels with everything used in the ser- 
vices of the Temple, were not allowed to be used 
outside of the sacred enclosure or wall of the Tem- 
ple itself. 

The Constitution of the Order recognizes three 



SWEDEXBORGIAN RITE IN AMERICA. 171 

grades in its organization — Lodges or Temples, 
Grand Lodges or Temples, and the Supreme Grand 
Lodge or Temple. Every independent government 
may have its Supreme Grand Lodge, which has in- 
dependent authority and exclusive jurisdiction over 
all Lodges in the state, republic, kingdom, or em- 
pire, in which it may be established. But all Grand 
Lodges, and all Supreme Grand Lodges, take rank 
amongst their fellows in the order of their date. 

One feature of the Constitution provides for the 
existence of an Electoral College, which constitutes 
the Supreme Grand Lodge or Temple, whose mem- 
bers hold office for life, under the control and direc- 
tion of the Council, consisting of the Ritual Officers 
of the S.\ G.\ Temple. The College meets at such 
times and places as the S.\ G.\ Officer may appoint. 
The Grand Master of a Grand Lodge is a member 
of the College by virtue of his official position. Any 
Past Master of a Temple — whether he be a Past 
Grand Master or not — is eligible for life-member- 
ship in the Electoral College. But he must be 
elected by a majority vote of the College. 

Eminent Masons may thus become Honorary Life 
Members of the Electoral College as a reward of 
merit, and thereby become exempt from the pay- 
ment of all dues. Each State is entitled to send a 



172 SWEDENBOEGIAN KITE IN AMEKICA. 

Representative to the College, besides its Grand 
Master. The Representative, however, is only an 
annual member of the College ; but the Grand 
Officer is a member for life. An annual member 
cannot vote for the election of S.\ G.\ Officers— 
none but life-members can vote. A State can send 
a Representative who may reside anywhere in the 
United States. Every vacancy in the S.\ G.\ Coun- 
cil is supplied from the life-members of this Elec- 
toral College. 

Primitive Freemasonry is given to those who are 
qualified to receive it, under such conditions as its 
possessors may prescribe in accordance with the 
fundamental laws to which all its possessors are 
unreservedly obliged to submit, and which require a 
like unreserved submission to the Supreme Grand 
Council, from whom all right to initiate originates, 
and by whose authority it has been given. 

The S.\ G.\ Council reserves to itself the right 
and authority to withdraw at any time its delegated 
power from any man or body of men, in a Grand 
Council or in a Temple. For it cannot delegate its 
authority to any one so as to place that authority 
beyond its power of recall. And whilst it will not 
presume to interfere with the entire independence 
and absolute sovereignty of the Grand Councils 






SWEDENBOEGIAN RITE IN AMERICA. 173 

established by it so long as they conform to the 
Fundamental Laws, Ritual, Usages, and Teachings 
of the Order, the allegiance which they owe to it 
will prove their safeguard, as it will afford a " Court 
of last resort" for the final settlement of all ques- 
tions which may arise in independent Grand Lodges, 
and thus prevent those unfortunate disagreements 
which have so often, and for a long period, destroyed 
harmony in other branches of Freemasonry, for the 
want of a Supreme Head. 

With regard to the Swedenborgian Bite as a sys- 
tem, we may be allowed to say a few words. It 
proposes to teach the symbolism of nature as a 
science, by presenting the most suitable symbols to 
the eye and senses in the most attractive forms and 
combinations. There is a strict correspondence be- 
tween the varied forms and phenomena of nature in 
the material world, and the varied forms, powers, 
forces, and phenomena of mind — which correspond- 
ence cannot be seen, understood, and taught, with- 
out a scientific and systematic knowledge of the 
symbol and the thing symbolized, between the pred- 
icates of which there is a correspondence. The 
Rite assumes that the science of correspondence is 
a key by which we can at any time unlock the secret 
and hidden forces of nature, " the invisible things of 



174 SWEDENBORGIAN RITE IN AMEEICA. 

creation may be understood by the things that are 
made." And because it applies to every depart- 
ment of nature, it is not inaptly designated the 
" science of sciences." This is the corner-stone of 
every system of Freemasonry : exclude it and you 
destroy symbolic teaching. The symbolism of Free- 
masonry has never yet been studied as a science ; 
and certainly it has never been taught as a science. 
The idea of dealing with symbolism as a science had 
no existence in the minds of those who revised the 
monitorial lectures and work in 1717. 

To our ancient brethren, the science of symbols 
was the science of sciences — it pervaded them all, and 
was the chief of the sciences. It was especially 
cultivated by the Egyptians, being the origin of 
their hieroglyphics. It was this science which en- 
abled them to know the symbolic meaning of ani- 
mals and trees of every kind, as well as mountains, 
hills, rivers, fountains ; also sun, moon, and stars. 
Now, as all their worship was representative or sym- 
bolic, they therefore performed it on the highest 
mountains and hills or the lowest valleys, accord- 
ing to the lofty or lowly state of those who wor- 
shipped ; and also in groves and gardens. For this 
reason, too, they consecrated fountains, and made 
graven images of horses, oxen, calves, lambs, birds, 



SWEDENBORGIAN RITE IN AMERICA. 175 

fish, and reptiles, which they placed in the vicinity 
and at the entrance of their temples, and also in 
their houses, arranged in order according to the 
moral things, principles, powers, sentiments, and 
truths they desired to illustrate by their instrumen- 
tality, and to which the symbols corresponded : which 
moral things they represented as perfectly as any 
combination of letters or words could have done. 

The Swedenborgian Rite teaches that there is no 
science so ancient as symbolism. The first concep- 
tions of our race were pictured forth by it ; the first 
language expressed by it ; and the first recorded 
narrative on the trees, rocks, stones, and earth, was 
written by its means. A symbol is a thing that can 
be seen, and is best adapted to an infantile state. 
A child learns best by the use of emblems or pic- 
tures. " A ivas an Archer 1 — as given in the alpha- 
bet lesson, accompanied with the picture of an 
archer shooting with a bow and arrow — is but a 
kind of adapted symbolism. But it will show us 
how mankind, in the infant ages of the world, re- 
duced every idea, whether religious, political, civil, 
scientific, or social, to the form of mythical narra- 
tive composed of symbols. The more ancient a 
nation is, the more symbolic are all its predicates : 
its government, customs, language, arid religion, 



176 SWEDENBORGIAN RITE IN AMERICA. 

are more purely symbolical. There is more sym- 
bolism in the Egyptian religion and language than 
in the Jewish ; more in the Jewish than in the 
Apostolic ; still less in the Catholic, and least in 
the Protestant. The origin of the science of sym- 
bols is lost in the distance of time, and seems unde- 
niably connected with the cradled condition of 
humanity. The oldest religions were governed 
almost exclusively by it ; the arts of design, archi- 
tecture, statuary, and painting were all born under 
its influence, and primitive writing was one of its 
applications. 

In process of time, when the science of symbolism 
fell away and became obliterated, posterity began 
to worship the mere graven images which had been 
used as symbols, as if they had been holy them- 
selves ; not aware that their forefathers saw nothing 
holy in them, but regarded them merely as symbols 
or representatives of holy things according to the 
nature of the thing to which they corresponded. 
Hence originated all the idolatries which have pre- 
vailed throughout so many nations of the ancient 
world. 

When language was in its infancy, and men ex- 
pressed their states of feeling, thought, sentiment, 
and especially their conceptions and ideas, by the 



SWEDENBOEGIAN BITE IN AMEEICA. 177 

dumb language of signs or symbols, then this method 
of expression was the most natural, comprehensive, 
and the only method. Whatever was most like 
what they wanted to express, that they used as a 
means by which to express it. This symbolic 
method was a subject most familiar to the nations of 
primitive times ; and we need not wonder why it was 
to them the science of all sciences, for it pervaded 
the whole ; and hence it was cultivated so univer- 
sally that all their books and works were written 
according to it. The beginning of all history is 
mythical. The hieroglyphics of Egyptians and As- 
syrians, and the fabulous stories of antiquity were 
founded on the same science. All ancient religions 
were representative and symbolic : outward symbols 
were in common use to expresss that inward world 
of moral things for which they had few or no words 
by which to express them. And hence the necessity 
which made their ceremonies, statutes, and rules 
for the institution of their worship, consist of sym- 
bols. In like manner, everything in the Israelitish 
economy — the burnt-offerings, sacrifices, meat-offer- 
ings, and drink-offerings, with all the particulars 
belonging to each — were symbolical of moral states, 
principles, and things : so also was the tabernacle, 
with all things contained in it ; and likewise the 



178 SWEDEXBORGIAN EITE IN AMERICA. 

festivals, as the feast of unleavened bread, the 
feast of tabernacles, the feast of first-fruits ; also 
the priesthood of Aaron and the Levites, and their 
garments of holiness. But what the particular holy 
things were, to which each corresponded or were 
symbolized by it, they had no conception — that 
knowledge and science of all sciences had gone with 
their forefathers. Besides all these, the statutes 
and judgments relating to worship and life — which 
were the rules for their institutions — consisted of 
symbols. 

Swedenborg, in one of his works, when speaking 
of the way in which ancient Freemasonry was ver- 
bally and traditionally transmitted, says : 

" Enoch and his associates collected symbols from 
the lips of those [most ancient antediluvians] holy men, 
and transmitted the knowledge thereof to posterity; 
in consequence of which the science of symbolism was 
not only known in many kingdoms of Asia, but was 
also much cultivated, particularly in the land of Ca- 
naan, Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, Syria, Arabia, in Tyre, 
Sidon, and Nineveh ; and from thence it was conveyed 
into Greece, where it was changed into fable, as may 
appear from the oldest writers of that country." — T. R. 
C, n. 202, 

" Succeeding ages, when the science of symbolism 
was obliterated, began to adore as holy, and at length 



SWEDENBOEGIAN KITE IN AMERICA. 179 

to worship as deities, the images and resemblances set 
nj) by their forefathers, because they found them in and 
about their temples. For the same reason, the ancients 
performed their worship in gardens and groves, accord- 
ing to the different kinds of trees growing in them, and 
also on mountains and hills : for gardens and groves 
signified wisdom and intelligence, and every particular 
tree signified something that had relation thereto ; as the 
olive = the soothing goodness of love ; the vine = the 
intricate and perpetual branching out of truth from love ; 
the cedar = the high towering truth growing heavenward 
and lofty and rational ; a mountain = the highest devel- 
opment of our loves, looking to God above all things ; a 
hill = the lower love looking to brotherly good. That 
the science of symbolic religion remained among the 
eastern nations, even till the time of Christ, may appear 
also from the wise men of the East, who visited the Lord 
at his nativity ; wherefore a star went before them, and 
they brought with them gifts — gold, frankincense, and 
myrrh (Matt. ii. 1, 2, 9, 10, 11) : the guiding star was a 
symbol of heavenly guiding knowledges; gold = the 
purest good relating to God ; frankincense = the lower 
good to our neighbor, because odoriferous and agreea- 
ble ; and myrrh = the lowest good to ourselves, which, 
though precious and valuable, yet was significative of 
inherent bitterness. And these are the three constitu- 
ents of all genuine worship." — T. 11. (7., n. 205. 

The Swedenborgian Bite, it will be seen, aims fun- 
damentally at restoring the lost science of sciences — 



180 SWEDEXBOEGIAN EITE IN AMERICA. 

the genuine symbolic teaching of the ancient Free- 
masonry of our forefathers. And it brings to bear 
upon its teachings the science which these primitive 
nations used with such wonderful skill, as to cover 
all their monuments, houses, chairs, utensils, and 
everything which they made, used, or produced, 
with the proofs of its universality — as universal as 
the very language with which they conversed. The 
Eite aims at the restoration of the lost method of 
exhibiting symbolic truth — or the universal ancient 
religion of symbols. There is no more appropriate 
definition, nor one more comprehensive of Freema- 
sonry, than the old one given in the English Lec- 
tures : " Freemasonry is a science of morality, veiled 
in allegory and illustrated by symbols." That is 
also what the Swedenborgian Eite is — the science 
of holy truth veiled in allegory and illustrated with 
symbols. 

But there are always persons to cry out, " Have 
any of the rulers and leaders believed on him ?" and 
who ask, What is the testimony of those who have 
been initiated? Permit me to illustrate the case 
by giving an answer to this question in the follow- 
ing manner. I had the pleasure of conferring three 
degrees of the Swedenborgian Eite upon one of the 
highest past officers of the Supreme Council of the 



SWEDEXBOEGIAN EITE IN AMERICA. 181 

33° Ancient and Accepted Eite — Giles Fonda Yates, 
Past M.\ P.". Sov.\ Grand Commander of the Su- 
preme Council — on the 29th August, 1859, a few 
months before his death. He was distinguished as 
a learned Masonic antiquarian, whose special de- 
partment was the HOE^ ESOTEEICiE— develop- 
ing the history and esoterics of " Sublime Freema- 
sonry." His antiquarian tastes and love of the 
mystic order prompted him to make the subject one 
of special research and study. He was peculiarly 
happy in his explanation of Masonic cabala, and 
stood unequalled in this department of Masonic 
literature. 

Yet this eminent Mason — who had then been 
thirty-live years a member of the high degrees — 
when he received the three degrees of this Eite, 
was so impressed with their symbolic simplicity and 
beauty, that when the ceremony was completed and 
the Lecture given, he openly expressed his convic- 
tion, before the Lodge was closed, that he had never 
until then seen his ideal of Masonry completely pre- 
sented in a scientific and systematic form, as he 
supposed it to have been originally and primitively. 
And he was so forcibly impressed with this convic- 
tion, that a few weeks afterward, when he felt his 
end approaching, he sent for the writer and another 



182 SWEDENBORGIAN EITE IN AMERICA. 

member — also a member of the 33° Ancient and 
Accepted Bite, and a Swedenborgian — to express 
his conviction anew, and to desire that the members 
of the Swedenborgian Bite would take the respon- 
sibility of superintending the burial of his remains, 
and to have the ceremonies performed in agreement 
with the Swedenborgian Bite, into which he had 
just been initiated. 

The Swedenborgian Bite, therefore, divides its 
six degrees into two Grand Divisions : 

I. Temple Masonry, or York Bite of three degrees. 

II. Primitive Masonry, or Original Bite of three 
degrees. 

By means of these latter degrees, any and every 
Mason will readily detect the errors which have 
sprung up in our modern system, and see where 
things have been displaced and erroneously ar- 
ranged : things of the third degree being in the 
second, and vice versa. 

This remark applies to some very important things, 
which have not been understood, nor made a sub- 
ject of explanation, or illustration, either in or out 
of the Lodge Boom. From a variety of causes, 
the three degrees of the York Bite have their ele- 
ments disarranged and mixed up in matters which 
are absolutely fundamental. 



SWEDENBORGIAN RITE IN AMERICA. 183 

In the Second Division of the Swedenborgian Rite 
all these errors become so palpable to the novitiate, 
that everything tells its own tale, and renders ex- 
planation unnecessary. To show how radically dif- 
ferent everything is, and how self-evident all the 
explanations are in this Primitive and Original Rite, 
I will cite a portion of an explanatory address to 
the Candidate in the second of the last three de- 
grees, or the fifth degree of the Rite. The address 
has reference to the name by which our Ancient 
Brethren have been known in all ages — the word 
Freemason, which is always spelled in this Rite 
Phremason. 

" Amongst our Ancient Brethren, every king was also 
a High Priest, and a promoter of light and intelligence 
amongst the people. Each Monarch was a Shepherd, 
and each lineal descendant was described as a Pi-eah, 
son of a Pi-eah, and bore that title over his name. 
Whilst the Over-Seer, or General Inspector who was 
the Grand High Seer and Grand High Prophet — for 
there were other seers and prophets besides him — was 
called Pi-eoeh, The Seer, by way of eminence ; as 
Samuel was the Over-Seer or General Inspector of all 
the schools of prophets, seers, high priests, and priest- 
hood generally. Our Brethren were known by the gen- 
eral name of Pheemasons ; and were so called from two 
ancient words, Phee or Pi-ee, The Light, and Mason, 



18i SWEDEXBOEGLlN EITE IN A1LEEICA. 

to search, or feel for blindly. As blixd Samson felt 
(Masox — in Hebrew) for the pillars on which the house 
rested (Judges, xvi. 26). Or as blixd Isaac felt (Ma- 
sou — in Hebrew) to distinguish his two sons, Jacob and 
Esau (Genesis, xxvii. 12, 21). Or as the Psalmist says 
of the blind idols, " They have hands, but they feel 
not" (Masox — in Hebrew : Psalm cxv. 7). In these and 
all other cases in the Bible, our great light, where the 
blixd feel their way, the ancient word Masox is always 
used. Our Ancient Brethren meant by this significant 
title, that a Phre-Masox is a poor blind candidate, or 
one in darkness, who is feeling his way in search of 
light." 

The reader will look in vain to find this origin of 
the name in any of the hundred yolumes forming 
our Masonic literature of the present day, and it is 
unknown or untaught in any of the degrees of Ma- 
sonry. Every Master Mason can readily see, when 
looking upon a Candidate, how very appropriately 
the word Pheemason describes his condition, and the 
condition that all have passed through — a poor blind 
Candidate, or one in mental darkness, feeling his 
way in search of light. 

Pi-the : EE-light : Mason — blind man feeling. 

Pheeitasox — Blixd man seaechixg foe The Light. 



XIX. 
CHAELES XII., OF SWEDEN. 

Secket Histoky. 

Theee are few portions of European history less 
known than the series of events in Sweden con- 
nected with the death of Charles XII., and three 
succeeding monarchs. This warrior-king set up a 
military despotism, and his successors formed a 
feudal oligarchy on its ruins. Then an absolute 
monarchy triumphed over the oligarchy, in a revo- 
lution which lasted but a single day ; and finally a 
constitutional government was organized under a 
monarch, who was suspected by his former master 
as an enthusiast in favor of republicanism. 

The king was only fifteen years of age when his 
father died, leaving him a settled and powerful 
kingdom, a full treasury, and able ministers at 
the head of affairs. A conspiracy was formed by 
three ruling monarchs, King of Denmark, Peter the 
Czar of Eussia, and the King of Poland, to plunder 
Sweden of various outlying territories. They little 
imagined that the boy-king had latent energies 



186 chapxes xn.. or Sweden. 

which would give them all :: :\t';he. They provoked 
him to war. and in war Charles took delight. He 
swore that, as he had been forced to protect himself 
from wolves, he would hunt them ever afterward 
into their very territories; and for nearly twenty 
years, to the end of his life, he kepi his word, for 
northern Europe hardly knew a year of peace. 

It was ; doubtless, a villainous conspiracy, which 
had been conceived and carried out under the con- 
ceptioD that his inexperience as a mere youth would 
render him incapable of directing the energies and 
resources of his country. In retaliation for this un- 
_:.h:~. for confederacy to plunder and break up a 
neighboring state. Charles XII. and his ministry, of 
which Baron Goertz and Alberoni were the chiefs, 
conceived a bold counter-scheme to change the en- 
tire aspect of European policy: including the res- 
toration of the Stuarts to the English throne — the 
transfer of the Regency of France from the Duke of 
Orleans to the " Rin g of Spain — the destruction of 
Austrian influence in Italy — the establishment of 
hereditary monarchy in Poland — and the annexation 
of Xorway to Sweden as an equivalent for Finland, 
recently conceded to Enssia, Tnis plan was no 
secret to the ruling powers in Europe : enemies 
sprung up everywhere, and at length the king lost 



SECBET HISTOBY. 187 

his life whilst attempting to annex Norway to 
Sweden. 

But his bitterest foes were his countrymen, the 
nobility of Sweden. They detested him and his 
ministry, especially Baron Goertz, for elevating 
royalty above feudalism. And the clergy hated 
him even more cordially than the nobles ; for the 
king issued a decree that the lands of the Church 
should bear a part of the burdens of the State : 
every rector of a parish had to fit out a dragoon, 
and every curate a foot-soldier. Swedenborg's 
father, the old Bishop of Skara, who had been chap- 
lain to the late King Charles XL, was incensed at 
the decree, and wrote the king. He says : 

" I took courage unto myself, and, seeking the help 
of God, sat down and wrote to Charles XII., then in 
Poland, a mightily serious and powerful letter, dated 
21st Dec, 1705." 

A specimen of the letter has been preserved in 
the following extract : 

" If the least thing is wanting in their accoutrements, 
a clergyman has to hear and swallow hard words, scoffs 
and snubbing at the mustering-table, whilst peasants 
and others stand by grinning and showing their white 
teeth. Hence the priesthood is brought into contempt, 
and pastors lose control over their flocks. 



188 CHABLES XII. , OF SWEDEN. 

"The clergy are forced to think more of guns, 
swords, and carbines, than of the Word of God, and have 
to waste their time in galloping about to musterings 
and reviews : some have had to borrow money at 
usury, and even to sell their Bibles in order to rig out 
a soldier." 

War is the most expensive thing in the world, and 
Charles XII. made it no boy's play, for he pinched 
poor Sweden dreadfully. But little is really known 
of the secret history connected with his death at the 
siesfe of Frederickshall. And had it not been for 
the Lodges and Encampments established by Swe- 
denborg, Polheim, Counts Mornir, Schwerin, Posse, 
and others, under the sanction and patronage of the 
king, and held in the camps of the army — had it 
not been for the secret councils thus held, by which 
a soldier could communicate information without 
fear of betrayal, the sudden death of the warrior- 
king would never have been called in question, but 
passed into history as one of the sad casualties of 
war. 

Lor some months, in the fall of 1718, there had 
been uneasy rumors and suspicions in the encamp- 
ments in consequence of the questionable conduct 
and mysterious mutterings of certain nobles. And 
the king's Masonic friends made him fully aware of 



SECRET HISTORY. 189 

the general feeling of the nobility, their determina- 
tion to set aside his military dictatorship, and the 
curtailment of his power ; but they feared the king 
and his military prowess, or they would have started 
a revolution whilst he was caged five years in Tur- 
key. Counts Mornir, Schwerin, and Posse, once 
warned him of these intrigues in the presence of 
Polheim and Swedenborg, who had been sent for 
and consulted by the king in consequence of a sus- 
picion that the French military engineer, Megret, 
who was conducting the siege, was doing it reluc- 
tantly, or was delaying it unnecessarily for some 
unknown cause. The Masonic friends of the king 
were all Swedes ; and they had noticed that his 
enemies, the nobles, were using Frenchmen as their 
tools to watch the king's movements. Two men 
were in their confidence — Megret, who conducted 
the siege, and Siquier, the French aide-de-camp to 
the Prince of Hesse-Cassel, husband to the king's 
younger sister, Ulrica Eleanora. 

Prince Frederick was one of the consenting and 
managing leaders in this conspiracy. The nobles had 
determined to accomplish the death of the king ; 
and there is good reason for concluding that the 
Prince took Siquier for his aide-de-camp, so as to 
have access to the king's person, and aid the military 



190 CHARLES XII., OF SWEDEN. 

engineer, Megret, to compass his death. Their plan 
was to shoot the king when exposed to the enemy's 
fire ; and before the king's death was known, to 
arrest the whole of his cabinet, seize the reins of 
government, and hang or shoot the most dangerous 
or the most obnoxious, especially Baron Geortz, the 
chief of the king's advisers. Then establish an oli- 
garchy on the ruins of the military dictatorship, 
which the king and his cabinet had established. Si- 
guier had confided the plot to Kulbert, another aide- 
de-camp, who was a member of one of the masonic 
encampments. It was, therefore, known that the 
king's death had been planned, and would be carried 
out if possible during the siege. But the probabili- 
ties seemed too remote for any serious attempt. On 
the same night when this plot was fully made known 
to the king, the reluctance of Megret to push the 
siege vigorously seemed to excite his suspicions : 
he determined to watch his movements, and person- 
ally push forward siege operations without much 
regard to the reluctance of Megret. A severe winter 
threatened to drive him from the walls of Frederick- 
shall, and he felt mortified at his chief engineer's 
reluctance. So on the 11th of December, 1718, in 
the darkness of the night, with a frost so intense 
that the most hardy Swede could scarcely bear it, 



SECEET HISTOEY. 191 

the king turned out for a tour of inspection in the 
undress of a simple officer, with the Kevenhuller 
hat, buff gloves, and enormous jack-boots, which 
formed his characteristic costume, and visited the 
trenches. He was dissatisfied with the slow progress, 
and sought out Megret, who was conducting the 
siege. He felt mortified at seeing his worst suspi- 
cions being verified — Megret and Siquier were in 
close and secret consultation, near the angle of an 
unfinished parallel. He accosted the chief engineer 
with bitter and angry words — " Sire, the place will 
be taken in eight days," said Megret. " We shall 
see," replied the king doubtingly, continuing his 
walk to the angle formed by the covered way and 
the parallel. He then paused ; and in order to get 
a clearer view of the men working in the trench, 
clambered up the earth battery and knelt on it for a 
while, resting his elbow on the parapet. Megret, 
stung to the quick by the king's words, tone, man- 
ner, and doubts, stood with Siquier watching his 
movements at a little distance behind him, and less 
exposed to the enemy's fire. Siquier had just ar- 
rived with despatches from the Prince for Charles 
XII. Behind these two Frenchmen, some paces 
back, stood the king's three Masonic friends, Count 
Schwerin, Count Posse, and Kulbert the aide-de- 



192 CHARLES XII., OF SWEDEN. 

camp, in converse, but not noticing the king's move- 
ments. Suddenly the king heaved a deep sigh and 
fell dead on the parapet, with his face toward the 
fortress. A ball had struck him on the right tem- 
ple — on the side where the two Frenchmen stood — 
then traversed the brain, and forced his left eye from 
its socket. His last characteristic motion was to 
grasp the handle of his sword ; as if the last act of 
consciousness was an attempt to defend himself from 
traitors. The two Frenchmen were the first to see 
him fall and rush to his assistance. 

Did the ball come from the fortress, or a secret 
assassin? Voltaire, on the authority of Siquier, 
asserts the former ; but Yicomte de Beaumont 
Vassy, the historian of Sweden, asserts that Siqui- 
er was the assassin himself. Now look at the facts. 
A ball fired from the batteries would have come 
from the front, and hardly have gone through the 
head from right to left ; he was pierced by a ball 
from a pistol of no great dimensions ; his head was 
pierced from the side where Siquier and Megret 
were standing ; the ball went in from behind to the 
front, from right to left obliquely, forcing the left 
eye from its socket. The men below were too low 
to have hit him thus ; whilst the two Frenchmen 
were nearest to him, and nearly on a level with the 



SECRET HISTORY. 193 

spot whereon he stood. Nothing could be seen in 
the darkness, whilst shots were being fired on both 
sides. The trio of Masonic friends who stood behind 
the two Frenchmen all looked upon one of the two 
as being the assassin ; whilst Kulbert declared that 
the assassin was none other than Siquier. 

Megret exclaimed, " There, the play is over ; let 
us begone ;" words which show how reluctantly he 
had worked, and how much he felt relieved, the 
instant that secret hatred and murderous intent 
accomplished what had been successfully planned 
and executed. Siquier at once posted direct to his 
master, Prince Frederick, of Hesse-Cassel, to convey 
the news, as he doubtless had been instructed to do. 
And the precautions which the Prince took on re- 
ceiving the news of the king's death, prove conclu- 
sively that it was anticipated ; and measures were 
taken to conceal the event until he had secured the 
persons of the late king's ministers. Why not seize 
the man who brought the news ? he was the nearest 
man to the king when he fell. The chief minister, 
Baron Geortz, was arrested by Baumgarten, who 
was instructed to keep his prisoner ignorant of the 
king's death. The baron was delivered over to the 
senate of nobles, and was tried, condemned, and be- 
headed, and his body buried under the common 



194 CHARLES XII., OF SWEDEN. 

gallows. Tlie Masonic friends of the king were not 
powerful enough to bring the real assassins to jus- 
tice, and they found it expedient to discontinue the 
Lodges and Encampments, which broke up with the 
war ; for it was well known to Prince Frederick and 
the nobility that their villainy was known in the En- 
campments of the brotherhood, and they were pro- 
hibited from holding any meetings in the army. 

No one in Sweden now doubts that he was as- 
sassinated. The Encampments doubtless shielded 
him from harm, by warning him of danger, and 
surrounding him with men who were devoted to 
him. And had he heeded the warning given him in 
time, he would have removed the danger from his 
immediate presence. Had King Charles been less 
a warrior than he was, Freemasonry would have 
flourished under his rule. 



XX. 
ILLUMINISM. 

Marquis de Thome. 

Oliver, in Lis " Historical Landmarks," says : " In 
1781 a Lodge was established at Paris for the pur- 
pose of concentrating the system of Weishaupt, of 
which the celebrated St. Germain, Cagliostro, Mes- 
mer, Kaymond, and many other well-known impos- 
tors were members. It was founded on the revela- 
tions of Sicedenborg, and corresponded, by accredited 
agents, with almost every European branch of the 
system." This is only partially true. Abbe Per- 
netti, Chastanier, and Marquis de Thome, were ac- 
tive and leading members of this Lodge, and ener- 
getic advocates of the Swedenborgian system. But 
it seems inconsistent to affirm that the Lodge was 
founded on the revelations of Swedenborg, and in 
the same passage declare it was established for the 
purpose of concentrating the system of Weishaupt. 
A portion of the Swedenborg rite was mixed up 
with the Illuminism of Weishaupt, and this admix- 



196 ELLTnmosiL 

ture gave rise : : the seeming inconsistency in Oliver's 

statement. 

Two other Lodges were formed at Paris at the 
^^e time : the one being aristocratic, called the 
Lodge of Candour ; the other, philosophical, called 
the Nine Sisters. Both, however, had the same de- 
signs, and practised the same degrees. The Mar- 
quis de Thome and Benedict Chastanier were active 
members of the latter; and they made strenuous 
efforts to separate :Le system of TTeishaupt from 
that of Swedenborg. It was simply absurd to 
the two systems together, for there is no a ffi nity or 
similarity between them. Swedenborg' s symbolic 
system formed the actual Masonry of the degrees, 
whilst Weishaupt's system furnished the purely po- 
litical machinery, signs, methods of recognition, etc., 
nature of association, and objects. 

TVe have already alluded to the Acadi 
lUumines VA :' ion. in our article on Count Cag- 
liostro : it was instituted about 1785. A mythical 
and erroneous statement has been in genera] so su- 
lation in Masonic literature for some twenty years 
past, in relation to the Marquis de Thome and the 
r^::3 taught in this Lodge at Avignon. So little 
has been known of this system, that the Marquis 
has been charged with taking it up about the years 



MARQUIS DE THOME. 197 

1783-5, and from it framing what is now known as 
the Swedenborg Eite. But this is a mistake : it has 
no historic foundation. He was a member of the 
Lodge at Avignon; so were Chastanier, Pernetti, 
Mesmer (of mesmeric fame), and Count Cagliostro. 
The first three made many efforts to obtain the 
Swedenborg Eite with a view to its introduction into 
France ; but they failed to obtain it. The Sweden- 
borg Eite had been in existence thirty years, when 
the Lodge at Avignon was instituted ; and nothing 
can be more certain than that the Marquis de Thome 
had nothing to do with the Swedenborg Eite, which 
was instituted in Sweden and not in France. 

The Marquis was an educated and intelligent 
Mason ; and his Masonic zeal was only equalled by 
his efforts to make known the symbolic system of 
the Swedish philosopher. The New Jerusalem Maga- 
zine, 1790, p. 86, contains a letter from the Marquis 
declaring his reception of the Swedenborgian sys- 
tem. With such men as members, we may readily 
see why the philosophical Lodge of the Nine Sisters, 
and the aristocratic Lodge of Candour, were sus- 
pected of being founded upon or mixed up with the 
symbolic system of Swedenborg. The following let- 
ter was sent to a philosophical French Journal by 
the Marquis, and will fully prove him an avowed 



198 ILLUMINISM. 

Swedenborgian — Journal Encydopediqiie, September 
1, 1785, vol. vi., part 2. 

" Gentle^iex : 

"In the Report of the Commissioners appointed by 
the king, these gentlemen have affirmed that there does 
not exist any theory of the magnet. This assertion has 
occasioned many remonstrances ; and I shall here make 
one, and, as I think, the most jnst of any, in favor of an 
illustrious man of learning, some years since deceased. 
Three folio volumes were printed in Dresden and Leip- 
zic, in 1734, under the following title: JEmanuelis Swe- 
denborgii Opera Philosophica et Mineralia. I shall 
content myself with saying, that in the whole of the 
work there is such an abundance of new truths, and of 
physical, mathematical, astronomical, mechanical, chemi- 
cal, and mineralogical knowledge, as would be more 
than sufficient to establish the reputation of several 
different writers, etc. 

" I should forbear to add that M. Camus, who has 
performed such surprising things with the magnet be- 
fore our eyes, admits that he has derived from this 
author (Swedenborg) almost all the knowledge that he 
has exhibited on this subject ; and, in short, that without 
having studied him, our acquaintance with Magnetism 
must be very imperfect; — I say, I should forbear to 
mention this, if the Commissioners appointed by his 
Majesty (Louis XVI.) had not affirmed that there as 
yet exists no theory of the magnet, etc. 

" This, Gentlemen, is what I thought it my duty to 



MARQUIS DE THOME. 199 

make public for the benefit of society, from a regard for 
truth, and in gratitude to him to whom I am indebted 
for the major part of the little that I know; though, 
before I met with his writings, I had sought for knowl- 
edge amongst all the writers, ancient and modern, who 
enjoy any reputation for possessing it. 

"I have the honor to be, etc., 

"Marquis de Thome. 
" Paris, August 4th, 1785." 

This letter was written and published one month 
before Napoleon left the military school at Paris, 
and received his commission as sub-lieutenant in 
the regiment of artillery de la Fere ; and, of course, 
only a short time preceding the revolution. And 
when we consider that the Lodges of the Illuminati, 
with which the Marquis was associated, were very 
largely instrumental in bringing about the revolu- 
tion, in shielding the leaders from political harm, 
and secretly organizing public opinion ; — I say, 
when we consider all this, the Marquis becomes an 
important witness, and his testimony is worthy of 
consideration, when he affirms that the Swedenbor- 
gian system had a controlling influence over the 
secret orders which swayed the revolutionary period 
of 1792 in France. 

The celebrated Balzac, in his " Seraphita," pub- 
lished in Stuttgart, 1836, p. 99, gives an interesting 



200 iLLori:\i>A[, 

account of the occasion which called forth the pre- 
ceding article of the Marquis cle Thome ; he says : 

"The Marquis de Thome, by calling the Commission 
appointed hy the king for the investigation of magnet- 
ism to account for some expressions which had escaped 
them, procured great honor to the name of Swedenhorg 
in the controversy which had arisen in Paris in the year 
1785, on the subject of animal magnetism, in which con- 
troversy almost all the scientific men of Europe took 

part The Marquis at the same time showed the 

reason why the most celebrated scientific men suffered 
Swedenhorg to remain in oblivion to be this, that they 
wished secretly to adorn themselves with the feathers 
stolen from his hidden treasures : wherein he especially 
alluded to Buffon'e Theory of Cosmogony. In short, 
by many quotations taken from Swedenborg's encyclo- 
paedic works, he succeeded in establishing the complete 
proof, that this great seer was far in advance of the slow 
course of the human sciences. In order to convince 
yourself of this, you need but read his philosophical and 
mineralogical dissertations. So he is the precursor of 
modern chemistry, by announcing in a passage, that all 
the products of organical nature are decomposable, and 
that water, air, are by no means elemental substances. 
In another place, in a very few words, he enters into 
the deepest mysteries of magnetism, and thus deprives 
Mesnier of the honor of first discovery."' 

This writer might also have added, that the Mar- 



MARQUIS DE THOME. 201 

quis de Thome was perpetually complaining that 
the fabricators of new Masonic degrees all over Eu- 
rope — north, west, and central — were adorning their 
systems and orders with choice feathers stolen from 
Swedenborg's beautiful symbolic system ; and so gen- 
eral had become the practice, that he was in the 
habit of saying there was not a single new system 
without something plagiarized from the symbolic 
system of the Swedish philosopher. 

It will be observed, that the Marquis published 
his letter in the year 1785, about the time when the 
Masonic Convention held its sitting at Paris. It was 
at this Convention that Count Cagliostro had the 
audacity to propose that, in order to conciliate his 
patronage, the continental Lodges should not only 
adopt his rite, but destroy all existing documents. 
In the Acta Latomorum, vol. ii., is a long and inter- 
esting correspondence between Cagliostro and the 
Convention of Paris, in 1785. Clovel gives a de- 
tailed account of his proceedings. The Marquis de 
Thome disapproved of these attempts of Cagliostro 
to force his system upon the attention of the Con- 
vention ; but he favored the new system, because — 
at that time, but not afterward — it was very largely 
impregnated with the Sweclenborgian symbolic sys- 
tem ; and hence he privately endorsed the system 



202 mjonMBM. 

which Cagliostro then contemplated establishing. 
The Marquis wielded a powerful social influence 
over the Convention, and would have succeeded in 
getting the system endorsed, which had been planned 
in the Lodge at Avignon the same year, 1785, if the 
members of the Convention had only had the least 
confidence in Cagliostro, who destroyed the plan 
which his most intelligent associates had approved, 
by mixing therewith his own interests, honor, and 
exaltation, and fabricating changes to suit his own 
views. The Marquis also disapproved of the con- 
duct of Mesmer, who attempted to force his mes- 
meric philosophy into the Lodges, by insisting that 
it should be embodied in the monitorial lectures and 
teachings. The Marquis de Thome was a much 
more active and influential member of the Masonic 
Convention at Paris than Masonic history has yet 
given him credit for ; and he used his influence in a 
way which destroyed the effect of Cagliostro's cor- 
respondence with the Convention. 



XXI. 

NOTE CONCLTJSOBY. 

Feom the very moment of his initiation Sweden- 
borg appears to have resolved never to allude to his 
membership or to his knowledge of Freemasonry, 
either publicly or privately. He appears to have 
made up his mind to keep it a profound secret, and 
to regard it as something which had no relation to 
his public life. 

"We have searched his Itinerary, which contains 
brief references to everything he saw, heard, and 
read, during his travels, for something having rela- 
tion to his Masonic knowledge, intercourse, corre- 
spondence, visits to Lodges, places, or persons — but 
there is a studied silence, a systematic avoidance of 
all allusion to it. In his theological works, his 
Memorable Eelations speak of almost every sect in 
Christendom, and of all sorts of organizations, or of 
individuals belonging thereto. But Masonry is an 
exception — there is a systematic silence in relation 
to it. 



204 NOTE CONCLUSOEY. 

The time which he devotes to Masonic intercourse 
is always a perfect blank in his journal. The whole 
of 1737, and the spring of 1738, is a Manic, when he 
leaves Paris. Exactly twelve months after, he re- 
turns to Paris, and again his journal is a blank dur- 
ing the whole of 1739-1740, including the Masonic 
visits he made on his way home. Many Masonic 
letters must have been sent to him, during the last 
twenty years of his life, from France especially ; but 
not one can be found — all Masonic correspondence 
seems to have been systematically destroyed. 

Knowing it so well as he did, he would undoubtedly 
have condemned it, and illustrated its tendency in 
the Memorable Eelations of his theological wri- 
tings, if he had disapproved it. His mouth would 
not have remained sealed, if he had condemned it. 
His silence proves his great consistency as a Mason, 
even if he approved of it as a system. We think we 
are justified in affirming that Swedenborg never had 
any official position in a Lodge ; he never had time 
enough to spare for much visitation, nor for any 
form of amusement or recreation. His life was an 
intense study, and he never had a moment for any- 
thing but work. Even during his travels, his sight- 
seeings were subjects of study rather than amuse- 
ment. 



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